Princess of the Moon
by CRose
Summary: Permanently cursed to be a girl at Jusenkyo, Ranma does't take it very well and sets off on her own after punishing Genma. This story has a lot of twists and turns, so one can never be sure exactly what will happen as Ranma influences everyone.
1. Chapter 00 Revised

Notes-There are many different ideas out there that have been used to change  
or alter Ranma's fate in some way. The idea that he is stuck as a girl is  
one of them, it is one that I both like and dislike equally. It is a good  
thing if it helps Ranma to grow out of his shell and makes him happy in some  
way, but bad because it has a tendency to ruin the entire idea of what Ranma  
1/2 is. I debated on this idea for several days before deciding to do it,  
but it had to still be Ranma in some way and that meant that I had to replace  
some of the elements that I took away by turning him female permanently. To  
that end, like most of my other stories, this is a SM crossover and that  
will be used to make a new back drop for this story. It is set during the  
first season with Jedite and the other generals so that I can build a bit of  
history for her.  
  
What does this mean for the rest of Ranma's history, rivals, and  
girlfriends? It will be altered to fit the new circumstances as best as one  
can without destroying it entirely. This mixed in with Sailor Moon is going  
to cause some true chaos in everything . It will also mean that certain  
characters will be OOC as some like to say, I will keep the basic  
personality traits that make them who and what they are though.  
  
  
  
Princess of the Moon  
Prologue  
By C. Rose  
(c)2001  
  
**********  
  
'Panda no baka' went through Ranma's mind as the guide tried once again to  
pour hot water over her head. She sighed as the wanted transformation did  
not take place, it looked like she was going to be a girl for the rest of  
her life now. She sat dejectedly on the little stool in the guide's hut,  
anger and depression written on her face. They just had to come here, it was  
a great training ground, yeah right she thought. She watched as the guide  
poured hot water over the panda and he transformed back into her father, an  
aura of anger formed around her as she glared at the old man and made him  
cower against the back of the hut.  
  
Ranma just couldn't believe this was happening to him, just what Kami had  
he pissed off to deserve this? She had been having a perfectly normal fight  
with the asshole that was her father and knocked him into a spring,  
perfectly fine. Then she had finally heard the guide shouting out a warning  
just as this giant panda jumps out of the pool, it's body glowing with chi,  
and back hands her clear across the small valley where she smashes into a  
wooden fence that was being used to block off several springs. These were  
the ones that were far worse than the regular ones, these were the monster  
springs, the mind altering springs, and the permanent springs.  
  
Splash down had been a shock of cold water and an intense feeling of  
numbness as it spread through her body and altered her. Spring of Drowned  
Girl, Ranma has surfaced and shaken her head and wondered what had happened.  
She could tell that something was off right away, just standing had been a  
chore when she realized that her sense of balance was off, lower than it  
should have been. Then the second part of her new curse, Panda no Baka, had  
hit her and altered her whole world. Her outlook had changed just slightly,  
but enough to let her know that she had no way to go back to what she was.  
  
The guide was as apologetic as he could get, bowing to her and trying to  
tell them that he had tried to warn them. Ranma didn't blame the guide, she  
remembered ignoring the little man when they arrived. She was a girl now,  
forever, but that wasn't the whole problem. If she could change back and  
forth she might have been more forgiving, but could feel this feeling inside  
of her that she couldn't place. As a man she had never felt anything like  
this, it was power, she was sure of that, but what kind was a total mystery.  
  
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you old man?" Ranma snarled,  
her eyes burning with a silver light.  
  
Genma screamed like a little girl and fell to his knees in his patented  
'Crouch of the Wild Tiger' and started whimpering and begging for her  
forgiveness. Ranma didn't know it but she was blazing with massive aura and  
reminded him of some of the masters escapades in the past. Her new form was  
breathtaking to say the least, a little taller than her old male one, a  
dancers lithe body, a set of large breasts, and red hair that had burst out  
of it's customary pig tail and grown before their eyes until it reached the  
back of her calves. It was waving in the power of the aura she was putting  
out and making her drop dead gorgeous, the power nearly blasting him off his  
knees even as he cowered before her.  
  
"Well?!!" Ranma yelled.  
  
"I-I-I..." Genma gibbered as Ranma growled and kicked him with the full  
power of her aura behind it. With a grunt of pain, Genma was sent flying  
through the roof of the hut and far into the sky on a flight that would last  
some minutes and end in a village of Amazons some miles away who where even  
them just beginning get into their yearly Martial Arts Tournament. All the  
women were wearing their armor and weapons as they heard a scream and looked  
up into the sky. Genma fell out of the sun and impacted the table holding  
the feast of food that had been prepared for the winner, they were not  
happy. They took much satisfaction in making their displeasure known to the  
unconscious man that had interrupted them.  
  
Back at the springs Ranma had taken both packs and emptied them on the  
ground to search for anything that she might need. She rummaged around until  
she found what she was looking for, her father's money belt and the money it  
contained (stolen of course). She also set aside her father's scroll case,  
Tanto, and several books. She then spent the next several minutes examining  
her new body, and decided that there was only a few ways she could survive  
this without going insane. Oh, she was mad right now, but had done something  
like this in the past when she was subjected to the Neko-ken, she had barely  
survived that because she had tried to hold all the pain and fear inside  
her. Luckily that old lady that had helped her had been smart enough to  
teach her some special ways to deal with it. This curse could be hated and  
rejected like she did with the Neko-ken, or she could accept it, adjust, and  
move on with a laugh. It would serve the old fart if she never came back to  
him, all his plans were dead now, the perfect revenge she figured. She  
grinned, the old fart had started to talk in his sleep lately, it had been  
quite an education learning about how he thought of her.  
  
There were some good qualities she was just beginning to realize, the  
transformation had altered her mind and implanted a large amount of  
information. A good amount of it was shocking the hell out of her,  
everything she didn't want to know about girls was there, it made her  
shudder when she realized once again that this to was permanent. There was  
also information on skills she had never heard of, like how to talk one's  
way out of a fight and lots of information on math, science, even a bit of  
magic lore. The last would have to be looked at carefully, maybe she could  
find a cure for being turned into this..freak. Ranma felt herself starting  
to cry and forced herself to stop, she would stay in control because she was  
a man no matter what she looked like.  
  
She had no intention of ever obeying the panda again, what little trust she  
had felt for him before coming here was gone. Ten years on the road had  
taught her enough martial arts to survive without the old man and she wasn't  
going to give it up now that she was missing some vital parts, and the first  
order of business was getting herself back up to fighting trim in this new  
body. The lack of proper balance was driving her up the wall, to even get a  
portion of her edge back she was going to have to retrain her body in  
everything she could remember.  
  
Digging back into her pack, Ranma decided that she needed to put something  
else on and pulled some of her good clothes out. She cursed this new body as  
she lost her balance and fell over when she pulled her gi off and tossed the  
top off into the trees, her new tits bouncing free and giving the guide a  
free show. He wisely kept his mouth shut and admired the red headed beauty  
as she moved. She then pulled on a red silk shirt, arm bracers, and black  
pants. She had no feminine modesty so didn't even thing twice about stripping  
out of her wet boxers and putting on some dry ones right there in front of  
the hut.  
  
Off on the other side of the springs a bandana clad boy was overlooking the  
springs when he was hit in the head by a gi top. He growled about idiots and  
turned to teach the upstart a lesson in manners when he saw Ranma. His eyes  
widened into saucer plates and he gaped at the girl's beauty as she changed  
clothes, but when he saw the whole show and fainted when blood exploded out  
of his nose, visions of perfect breasts bouncing, rounded cheeks curved just  
right, and all the poof he needed to know that she was the natural red head  
of his dreams. Luckily he fell backwards and landed on his back, otherwise  
he would have landed in one of the springs.  
  
After having all that hot water dumped on her in a futile attempt to change  
her back, her hair was very wet and plastered to her back, it was just how  
she liked it when she needed to tie it up. Pulling it back tightly, she  
started to use the string to section in off into five inch segments, but  
there was so much there that she had to force it into the shape she wanted  
and after about half an hour she had a super long braided tail that hung  
down to below her waist. Ever the martial artist, she tied a small throwing  
star into the end of it so she could use it as a weapon if she needed to.  
She finished and called out for the guide, but he was just sitting on a  
large rock smoking his pipe.  
  
"Guide!" Ranma yelled, waving her hand in front of his face.  
  
The guide screamed and fell off the rock with a loud thump. "Yes Mr.  
Customer?" He asked, bowing low in apology, also to hide his blush.  
  
"Where is the nearest place I can get some training in without being  
hassled? I don't want to deal with people right now."  
  
The guide sweated and was tempted to send her to the Amazon village, but  
her little display of power earlier had frightened him. He may have taken an  
oath to send those most likely to be good stock to the village, but even he  
knew when someone could very well take their anger out on him. He pointed  
off in the direction the customers had used to enter the valley. "Off that  
direction is replacement for this training ground, two day travel if walk.  
Much better challenge than this cursed place."  
  
Ranma nodded and headed back over to the packs and stuffed anything in his  
that he might have need of. He took all the scrolls and most of his pops  
money, though he did leave him enough to buy a meal or two, like he would  
use it for that. "The panda is likely to return, do not tell him where I  
went, he went to far this time and I am breaking all ties with him." Ranma  
told the guide.  
  
With that Ranma shouldered the heavy backpack and headed out looking  
pissed, her foot found the one root in a three mile radius that was sticking  
above the ground by several inches to trip over and she smashed into the  
ground face first with a howl of shock. Climbing to her feet she staggered  
off complaining about being top heavy and being turned into a klutz all in  
one fell swoop, "Panda no Baka!" Ranma yelled out. She then walked on for  
several more minutes before she saw a man passed out on the edge of a cliff  
over looking the valley, there was blood all over his shirt, but a giant  
grin on his face. She wandered over to see if he was alright, that was a lot  
of blood to lose as well.  
  
"...so round and perfect...hehehe..." He giggled at whatever was going  
through his mind.  
  
She felt this urge to kick the pervert over the hill, but refrained when  
she realized she knew him from somewhere. That bandana and those fangs were  
very familiar, but she just couldn't place them right off the bat. She  
shrugged and dragged him off into the forest and away from the cliff,  
hopeful he would avoid the springs. When she went to retrieve his pack she  
got her first shock, it was heavier than hers, by almost ten times as much,  
it explained his well muscled arms and back. She looked him over jealously,  
just that morning she had been blessed with as similar build, but now it was  
gone. Though she did seem to still possess much of her skills and power as a  
girl, she just hoped she would be able to compensate for it by the time she  
reached Japan again.  
  
Something about this situation felt wrong to her and she decided to leave  
before her cursed existence caused her even more problems, the last several  
years had been nothing but constant fighting and training, most of the  
problems had stemmed from her father in one way or another too. She grabbed  
her pack and set off out of the area, leaving the Lost Boy to wake up alone  
and blushing down to the tips of his toes as he headed west, left the area  
and half an hour later was over looking an ice field in the middle of  
nowhere. He had been here several times in the last weeks and used his  
special gear in his pack to keep warm while he trudged the ten or fifteen  
minutes to the nearby jungle and settled down for the night.  
  
The next several weeks Ranma spent getting her edge back, retraining her  
new body to flow through kata designed for a male body. At first her  
wanderings and training had been total hell as she tripped an fell every ten  
feet, her balance so messed up that she had to spend an entire day just  
learning how to walk properly. After that most every thing else quickly  
returned as she adapted it, she even made a delightful discovery. Her speed  
had always been pretty good, now she could blur from sight a she practiced.  
At night she read through the scroll the panda had in his pack and found  
several of them pretty easy to learn, though she would half to change the  
main reason for the moves to put the to decent use. Why the old fart had a  
technique for stealing panties in his possession, but it could work on other  
things as well. He even had a Ki charged speed attack that could push her  
speed to astronomical heights, she figured once she mastered it she could  
throw over 500 punches in a few seconds flat!  
  
Why the hell he hadn't been teaching her these she didn't know, but figured  
it had something to do with his always holding back information, even when  
she needed it for a fight or just survival. Ranma's training took on an  
obsessive quality as she moved across China and avoided most towns she came  
across, she had found a number of wanted posters of her father and her old  
male half and was glad she had ditched the old man. He would have turned her  
in if could get away with it, taking the money and running as fast as he  
could. Finally she reached the coast and over looked a small fishing  
village, it was just what she needed right then. She set up camp out in the  
woods and filled out several post cards she had found in the old man's pack,  
they were all the same, so she figured he had just grabbed a bundle for a  
rack somewhere and pocketed the lot of them. She thought the panda on the  
front was a great omen for the old fart, a kind of forewarning that he hadn't  
even known about. It made her grin evilly.  
  
She spent a few hours after that practicing her Ki control and was thrilled  
when she pushed her punching speed up to over ninty per second, but she was  
disappointed in the down side to the technique. For her speed, she lost a  
good amount of the power to her punches and wasn't able to do much damage  
yet, but the scroll said to keep at it until the force of her blows  
returned. After that she filled out a couple of the post cards, one that the  
idiot had planned to send to some guy named Tendo with an extra couple of  
lines about his killing his son in a training accident and his curse. Ranma  
figured it would be good for a couple of laughs when he showed up at their  
door as a giant panda. The second was to his mother, letting her know about  
the accident, her parting of ways with the panda (he just had to let her  
know about that) and that he had no intention of killing herself now that  
she had lost her manhood so was giving up the Saotome name.  
  
It was a bit harsh, but she figured that any one that would let her suffer  
through the tortures of training that Genma had put her through didn't  
deserve more than that. The Seppuku contract in the old farts bag had been  
an eye opener and made her so mad that it had burst into flame while in her  
hands. It had also been the final thing she needed to cut her losses and  
ditch the old fart, may he become a panda fuck toy for some lonely monkey.  
She was putting some thought into changing her name completely, but wasn't  
sure if it would do any good. Even if she changed it, someone would  
eventually track her down and figure out who she was and she had no  
intentions of getting married to some boy just to keep her secret safe. She  
had changed, but not that much, girls still turned her head as easily as  
they always had, no matter how much the old man had tried to beat the  
reaction out of him.  
  
**********  
  
It was about midnight several days later when Ranma reached the coast of  
Japan and waked ashore glowing a bright red as she used her aura to dry her  
clothing. Several of the couples on the beach ran away in fear, screaming  
something about a demon. Ranma ignored them as she made her way into the  
city, scaring the crap out of everyone that saw her. Since Ranma didn't have  
a mirror, she couldn't see what she looked like, but a cat hiding in a  
nearby alley was watching her intently and gasped as she saw the small  
silver crescent moon on the girl's forehead, tears poured down the cats face  
as memories filled her head.  
  
Luna ran out of the alley to catch her princess, but had to dive in as the  
girl turned to look at her and screamed in fear. Luna spun around to protect  
her princess, but found nothing out of the ordinary, she looked back and  
blinked. The red headed girl was over half a mile way and accelerating,  
screaming in fear about...cats! What was going on here, the princess had  
never been afraid of cats before, dragons yes, cats no. She ran after her,  
but knew it was hopeless in the end, the girl was just to fast. Luna heaved  
a sigh and pulled out her communicator, having your own subspace pocket was  
very handy, and hit the all call non-emergency button.  
  
"What is it Luna?" Ami Mizuno asked, wiping sleep out of her eyes. Soon  
all the other girls except Usagi were listening in.  
  
"I just saw the Princess!"  
  
"What?!!" Yelled three very wide awake girls. Rei and Ami looked shocked  
beyond belief, Usagi would have complained about losing sleep, but she was  
asleep, so didn't say anything.  
  
"I was in this alley when I felt this strong aura heading my way and I hid,  
a few seconds later this tall red head walks by, she was glowing a bright  
red and had the Royal Crescent Moon symbol on her forehead. Just the sight of  
it brought back a large chunk of my missing memories."  
  
"Where are you Luna, we'll meet you there." Said Ami.  
  
"I'm afraid that something weird happened and she ran off screaming." Luna  
said nervously, if not for that crescent moon she would have been a little  
suspicious of the girl and thought she was a member of the Dark Kingdom.  
  
"What do you mean, Luna?" Rei asked as she squinted at Luna.  
  
"She seems to be afraid of cats for some reason, took one look at me and  
ran off in a panic."  
  
"Luna, can you describer her a little better?" Ami asked as she typed in  
her mini computer.  
  
"Sure, she was about 5'10, 115 pounds, blue eyes, in incredible shape, and  
had this long red hair that was tied back in a long pony tail that reached  
down to below her waist. She was wearing a red silk Chinese shirt, black  
pants, and was bare foot. She also had this strange grace that only the  
Princess could have used as she walked." Luna was a trained observer and an  
adviser to the Princess when she showed up, she had to know her job. "She  
was also carrying this large backpack and glowing a bright red."  
  
"Glowing?" Rei asked.  
  
"Yes, I'm not sure why, but she didn't seem to be in any danger and there  
were no Youma about that I can sense."  
  
"Luna you said a backpack, is it possible that she wasn't born in Japan,  
but possible China? She was wearing Chinese clothing."  
  
"She looked Japanese to me Ami, so I don't know." Off in the distance is  
large explosion and Luna picks up the telltale signs of a Youma on the  
rampage again. "Looks like I spoke to soon, there's a Youma attack a few  
blocks from here."  
  
Usagi's communicator beeped and signaled that she had received the message  
and would be in the area as soon as she could. Luna wondered what had woken  
the girl up, usually a bomb couldn't do it. She took off for the battle so  
that she could help the girl's fight it, they were still so green she even  
hated to send them out. It took her several minutes to reach the fight, but  
she looked around the corner of a building and gasped as she spotted Jedite  
laid out on the ground across the street, a familiar back pack on his  
chest. The she took in the Youma and gasped.  
  
Her princess was fighting it with her bare hands and using skills that she  
didn't remember her ever using. There was that bright red aura around her  
again and she seemed to be using it to increase her speed and power a  
thousand fold. The Youma was one of Jedite's usual kind, sorta female with  
odd powers, this one seemed to be able to use electricity as a weapon as it  
fired blast after blast at the Princess. The girl was unlike anything Luna  
could remember as she dodged at speeds that even the Scouts couldn't match,  
she slowly made her way forward every few seconds until she was in the  
thing's face and...  
  
**********  
  
Gasping for air as she leaned against the building, Ranma hoped she had  
lost that damned cat. Ever since the stupid Neko-ken training the things  
seemed to follower her around like she was cat nip or something. She just  
hoped she didn't lose it before she found a way to cure herself of the  
blasted fear, if she didn't, she feared what she would do. As soon as she  
calmed down again she paled and looked around to see this thing walking down  
the street, it was vaguely female and dressed in this red and yellow costume  
covered in little black lighting bolts, it was giving off this aura of  
evil...no that was coming from above it.  
  
She looked up and spotted this blonde haired man hovering arrogantly as he  
survayed the area. He hadn't seen her yet, but knew it wouldn't be all that  
long before he did. Something deep inside her clicked and Ranma knew she had  
to defeat this guy, he was evil and a traitor to boot. She examined the  
situation and decided the guy was leaving himself open in his arrogance, a  
sneak attack would take him out quickly enough and allow her the time she  
needed to take out the monster. She slowly pulled her pack off her back,  
spun it a couple of times and threw it at the blonde. It arched up and  
impacted right in his chest and sent him slamming into the building and to  
the ground, she smiled as her super heavy pack landed on him and knocked the  
wind out of him.  
  
The monster gaped at her boss and didn't react as Ranma ran up and punched  
her in the head and sent her reeling, then she had to take several kicks,  
punches, and combos before the girl backed off. The monster straightened and  
looked at Ranma, anger evident in her eyes. "Who the hell are you?"  
  
"Ranko." Ranma said, figuring a fake name could be used after all.  
  
"Die, Ranko!!" The monster yelled and started to fire off blasts of  
electricity, but Ranma just grinned and dodged them easily. The speed  
technique had gotten easier and easier to do since he learned it, she had  
even gotten to the point that she could use some force in the blows now and  
this was good time to test just how much! She weaved forward though the  
thing's pathetic attack and began. Her arms vanished form sight as she used  
the thing as a punching bag, completely overwhelming it's total lack of  
resistance, she finished it off with a punch to the jaw and heard a loud  
cracking sound. The monster fell into a pile of dust at her feet that glowed  
for a few seconds before vanishing.  
  
Ranma blinked and shrugged, less mess to clean up. "That was easy, I  
thought it would put up a better fight than that." Then grinned as she saw  
the blonde starting to stand back up, he was holding his head and looked  
righteously pissed off, Ranma smirked at him.  
  
"Who the hell are you?"  
  
"I take it you and your monsters use the same speech writer?" Ranma asked  
innocently.  
  
"Who are YOU!?" Jedite yelled.  
  
"No one that matters idiot, if were going to fight, bring it on. I figure  
you won't be as well trained as the stupid monster I just took out,  
blondie."  
  
Luna giggled quietly.  
  
Jedite growled and fired off a blast of dark energy, but Ranma dodged it  
and was in front of him before he could even gloat about his powers. She  
punched him, in the stomach, as hard as she could and grinned evilly as  
Jedite fell to his knees and coughed up some green blood. He looked up at  
her in fear just before she kicked him in the back and sent him sprawling,  
Luna was in awe of her speed and power. Ranma stalked forward and Jedite  
panicked, he jumped into the air and vanished through a black portal.  
  
"I'll be back!" He yelled as he vanished.  
  
"Read enough comic books, you moron?" Ranma muttered to the now empty area  
and went to reclaim her pack. "Are you going to come out now, or am I going  
to have to come up there?" Ranma called out and looked to the roof of a  
nearby building. Luna noticed Mars and Mercury had been watching the fight,  
Moon was there, but she was asleep again.  
  
"May we come down and talk?" Mercury asked.  
  
"Go ahead."  
  
The scouts jumped the three stories to the ground and landed easily  
enough, this impressed Ranma quite a bit, but she started to snicker as they  
got closer and fell to her knees a few seconds later. The Scouts stopped and  
looked at each other in confusion, Moon let off a loud snore from the roof.  
"What's wrong?" Mercury asked.  
  
"How can you walk around in public in those outfits, I've never seen  
something so stupid in all my life." Ranma laughed out, rolling around now.  
"I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those get ups."  
  
"These are our uniforms, they are the very height of fashion and magical  
protection!" Mars yells out.  
  
"But...Bwahahahahaha...s-sure Thumbalina, then you go out and perform swan  
lake, right? Bwahahahahah." By this time Ranma had tears rolling down his  
face and it was getting harder to breath. "...and w-what's the one on the  
roof? Is she some kind of Snorlax or something?"  
  
Mercury blushed at that, Usagi's mom had forced a valium down the girl's  
throat at dinner and she hadn't been very coherent since. "Um...heheh...can  
we talk about what where here for?"  
  
Still gasping for air, Ranma couldn't stop herself from giggling at the  
girls a little more before she calmed down enough to talk. "What did you  
want to talk about?"  
  
"Um...well...we...thought you might be one of us and came to find out."  
Mercury said quietly.  
  
"You've got to be kidding me?" Ranma said.  
  
"No, one of our...friends saw you earlier and said she saw pretty good  
proof that you could be the girl we have been looking for." Mars said.  
  
"And who might I be, if I am the one your looking for?"  
  
"The Princess." Mars said, with a straight face.  
  
Ranma lost it and started laughing again, she was rolling a few seconds  
later. "Sorry girl's, I don't have time to play dress up right now." Ranma  
said as she snickered, rolled to her feet and shouldered her pack. "Maybe we  
can play again some other time, Bye." She jumped over them, rebounded off a  
building and jumped to a nearby roof and vanished before they could even  
come up with a wave goodbye.  
  
"Luna how can that girl be our Princess?!" Yelled Mars, who was impressed  
with the jump the girl had made.  
  
The cat came running up, trying not to giggle at the girls. "She had a  
silver crescent moon on her forehead, that makes her a very good candidate  
since only those of the Royal Moon Family have it on their heads."  
  
"I can't believe for a second that this girl is the Princess, she is rude,  
mean, insulting, and doesn't even know how to dress as a girl, let alone a  
princess."  
  
"I disagree Mars." Mercury said as she looked at her computer.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"That girl is nearly Sailor Moon's equal in power according to this and  
hasn't even tapped her full powers yet."  
  
To Be Continued... 


	2. Chapter 01 Revised

**********  
  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 01  
By C. Rose  
(c)2001  
  
**********  
  
  
When she woke up, Ranma crawled out of her tent and began her early morning  
streach and work out, us usually lasted about three hours, so it was nearing  
8am by the time she finished up. She grabbed a pan out of her pack inside  
the tent and walked over to the lake that was the main attraction of the park  
she had slept in and used it to dump several pans of water over her and  
to get rid of her sweat. Several of the guys out jogging nearly dropped dead  
from shock as she did this, it had her wet silk shirt clinging to her curves  
in a very interesting manner, Ranma didn't even notice as she dried her hair  
with a towel that had seen better days.  
  
She had a lot on her mind as she thought about that fight the day before  
and those weird girls who had said she was some kind of princess. Ranma  
snickered to herself again, if they only knew that I had used to be a guy,  
they wouldn't have even tied that. She would have dismissed them entirely,  
but that three story jump those two girls had made was nothing to sneezed  
at. That kind of skill took years of practice to learn, whoever they were,  
they were very strong and talented. A few months ago she might have  
dismissed them as useless since they were female, but being stuck like this  
full time had force the true reality down his throat on a daily basis,  
girl's were not weak unless they wanted to be. Every other girl he'd met in  
China as she traveled around had been a decent fighter and she had spent  
several days camped in certain places as she challenged female fighters  
around the area and learned from them.  
  
Those fights had the most fun she'd had since the change and she had  
mastered several special attacks and even a couple of Ki attacks to add to  
her arsenal of growing special attacks. Now these girls were looking to try  
and get her to join their team, if it wasn't for that uniform, she may have  
been tempted, but as it was maybe she could get them to fight her on a one  
on one basis to see how good they were. She picked up and packed her stuff  
as she thought all this through and wondered where to go from here. Without  
her family she was Ronin and didn't have very many options.  
  
She was in the Juban district if she remembered right, maybe she could find  
a part time job and make some money before settling down somewhere. While  
making her way out of the park, Ranma noticed the local truancy officer  
heading her way, a scowl on his face. School, she didn't need to deal with  
that right now. Ranma hopped up on wall, waved the officer, and ran for it  
down the fence line, between buildings, across a couple of canals and up  
onto the roof tops until she reached the business district. If that guy  
actually managed to follow her through all that, she would go to school just  
for his skills alone. About five minutes later he hadn't shown up so she  
figured she was in the clear.  
  
A bit of wandering brought Ranma to a bus stop and a set of stairs that led  
up to Hikawa Shrine. The name sounded familiar to Ranma and after a few  
minutes though she recalled that they had traveled through this area a few  
years ago, they had stopped at the Shrine for a few hours before moving on  
in the middle of the night. Ranma snapped her fingers remembered a set of  
scrolls in her pack she had been learning from, they specialized in mediation  
techniques that she had been using to gain control over her Ki and that  
damned Neko-ken of hers. She had the techniques down, so figured that  
returning them would restore some of her tarnished honor.  
  
With those techniques she had learned how to review her life from different  
perspectives, she couldn't believe the sheer number of time her idiot father  
had tricked her into stealing something by turning it into a game, or the  
people she had hurt without knowing it. Ukyo, her old friend had been  
surprise had had her so angry that she had destroyed several trees with her  
fists before she calmed down. Relieving that little problem was going to be  
a pain in the ass, but her renouncing the Saotome name had solved a number  
of problems for her and placed them back where they belonged, at the panda's  
feet.  
  
The stairs were a good training exercise, Ranma ran up them in two minutes  
flat. It took most normal people five minutes to do it normally, as she hit  
the top, she saw a dark haired girl about to come down and flipped over her  
in a daring acrobatic way. The girl was so surprised she fell down in  
surprise, Ranma just smirked as she landed.  
  
"Good morning, do you know where I can find the head priest?" Ranma asked  
the girl. She was very pretty, but there was this cruel glint in her eyes  
that disturbed her a little. The girl was wearing a school uniform of gray  
plaid and had dropped her book bag, her skirt had hitched itself up in the  
fall and her white panties were showing.  
  
"Just who the hell do you think you are, this is shrine, not a gym or a  
battle ground. You just don't go around scaring people like that, get out of  
here and go away!" Rei yelled, her face turning red as she notices her  
skirt.  
  
"I just stopped by to see the head priest, you caught me by surprise there  
and I didn't have time to react much, so I flipped over you."  
  
"Humph!!" Rei said, grabbed her bag and ran down the stairs. She stopped  
just out of sight and wondered why the red head was here of all places. She  
ran into the trees at the side of the stairs and made her way back up so she  
could keep an eye on the girl, at the same time she pulled out her  
communicator.  
  
Ranma just giggled as the girl left.  
  
"May I help you cutie?" Asked an old bald man, with a lecherous grin as  
she looked her over.  
  
Ranma glared at him until he backed down. "Yes, I need to return something  
to you."  
  
"What would that be?" The old man asked, his eyes glued to her tits.  
  
"A couple years ago my idiot father passed through here and stole something  
from you, I was just going to return them to you."  
  
"Stole..." The old man's eyes brows rose for a second, them his eyes turned  
to stone and in a totally different tone of voice he said a name.  
"Genma...Saotome."  
  
"I see you know the idiot, I figured you would." Ranma handed over a small  
bundle of scrolls. "These are yours I believe."  
  
"Um..."  
  
"That's my good deed for the day, now I must be off." Ranma said and  
started to walk off.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Are you Ranma Saotome?"  
  
"Not any more old man, not any more."  
  
"Why did you return these, what about the other stuff your father stole?"  
  
"That is the only thing I can remember him taking, what are the other  
items?"  
  
"He also took a hundred thousand in yen out of our savings, most of the  
silverware, and the sacred texts."  
  
"He probably sold them somewhere, he had this habit of ditching me for  
days on end to do odd jobs and such, while I was training in one technique  
or another. At least that's what he said he was doing, but I have my doubts  
now."  
  
"I may be old, but I remember Ranma Saotome quite well and you are not  
him."  
  
"Ever hear of Jusenkyo?"  
  
"No, what is that?"  
  
"The cursed springs training grounds, it's a nasty place. Pops and I picked  
up a curse there, it is because of that place that I no longer travel with  
the idiot."  
  
"A curse can not turn someone into a totally new shape, now why are you  
trying to help those two thieves?"  
  
"Believe what you will, I returned what I could of your property, if your  
going to get mad about it, that's your problem, not mime. I renounced the  
the family name when I was cursed. Good day." Ranma said and turned to walk  
off again.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
"What!?" Ranma growled.  
  
"Thank you for showing that there is someone in your family that holds  
honor."  
  
"Old man, I renounced my family name so it no longer matters. I gave up  
everything when I did it, I'm not even a man anymore because of those  
springs. Still, here's some good news for you, pops picked up a curse  
himself and now turns into a giant panda with a splash of cold water. If you  
ever see him again, just toss a cup of water on him and laugh."  
  
"Will you tell me more of this curse of yours and this Jusenkyo?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"These scrolls are prized possessions for Shinto Temple like this and cost a  
fortune to replace. I still haven't had a chance to get new ones and my  
granddaughters training has suffered for it. Also, the seals on these have  
been forced open, that means that someone has seen the techniques within, a  
I right?"  
  
"Yes, though it was open when I took them from the old fart, I used the  
techniques to help cure me of some problems that I had developed over the  
years."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"I'd rather not talk about it." Ranma said with a shudder.  
  
"The main thing these techniques teach is Ki control and I can tell just  
from looking at you that you have mastered the techniques. Your body is over  
flowing with Ki, I can feel it and I've never met anyone as strong as you.  
How is it you have achieved this much skill?"  
  
"My martial arts school is called 'Anything Goes' and my pops has taught me  
in it for over ten years now. I have learned the majority of several other  
schools as well, this has given me a major advantage in a fight. Still, I  
think my dunking in that spring knocked something loose in my mind because  
accessing my Ki became much easier after I turned female, I can do Ki  
attacks and Ki defenses quite easily now."  
  
"That's amazing, can you show me?"  
  
"Well, nothing fancy, but I can call up a Ki ball with no problems."  
  
"A ball of Ki, you can't be that strong even with what I'm...seeing..." The  
old man's eyes widen to dinner plates as Ranma glares at him and holds up  
her hand. Red sparks of light begin arching from finger to finger for  
several seconds before collecting at the palm of her hand and pull into a  
small ball of red energy.  
  
"C-can you teach me how to do that?"  
  
"It takes emotion."  
  
"Emotion?"  
  
"I read though those scrolls of yours and several other I have and all of  
them described two ways to access Ki and use it. There is your way, which  
focus' all your energy into a point and you use it manipulate your fire  
readings and such. The second is scoffed at for being a short cut and not as  
powerful as the first way. This is the short cut, it uses one's strongest  
emotions blended together to form a desired effect." Ranma concentrates and  
the ball flares for a second and shrinks down into a tiny pinprick of light  
bright enough to cause Ranma to be cast into shadows.  
  
"Wha..."  
  
"This is your way, with me focusing everything I have into my hand. It is  
ten times as strong as the Ki ball, but not as useful and a lot harder to  
control. I can feel your strength old man and you have a lot of experience  
using your Ki in this way, but none in the other. You need to practice both  
or they can't work with each other, there has to be a balance." Ranma said,  
she figured that if the old man picked up the technique, it would help him  
to forgive the Saotome family for it's crimes. "Will that help to pay back  
some of what the panda did to you?"  
  
"Indeed it will, I can already see uses for both techniques."  
  
"Excellent, then I'll be off."  
  
The old man grinned again and sidled up close to her. "You wouldn't happen  
to want to be an acolyte would you?"  
  
"Nope, I have to find a job and find a place to stay, but thanks for the  
offer."  
  
"The job does pay you know?"  
  
Ranma stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. "How much?"  
  
"Enough to help you out, so long as you stay here and help. I also want you  
you to teach me and Rei how to use that second method you just showed me."  
  
"For how long?"  
  
"Say, six months?"  
  
"Can I use the woods to practice my martial arts?"  
  
"Sure, we even have practice dummies and other materials for you to use."  
  
"Agreed."  
  
**********  
  
Ice cream, it was the one thing Ranma loved above the Art, but not by much.  
She loved to eat it by the bowl or dish, or even in a cone if it was large  
enough. After getting a place to stay and even a job, she figured it was  
time to spend a little of her cash and celebrate a little. So she was  
walking down the street licking a giant ice cream cone with a big grin on  
her face. She loved ice cream, as a guy it was unmanly to eat, unless the  
old man sole a pint or two and decided to share with her at the time.  
  
The old man, grandpa as he wanted to be called, wanted her to get back in  
school. All she had to do was pick out one of the schools in the area, but  
had suggested Juban High as a good place to start, then the catholic school  
his grand daughter went to, or another just a bit further up the road from  
there. She couldn't even remember the last two's names and figured the  
Juban High would be a good place to start. She arrived at around 9am and  
wasn't surprised to find the gates locked up tight to keep the students  
inside to learn. She didn't know it, but she was already making an  
impression on the male half of the students as she stood there, they had  
noticed her and swarmed to the windows for better look.  
  
Ranma was in her usual clothing, black baggy pants and red silk shirt, but  
had added a black hair band and bows to her hair to give it a better look  
for a girl. She also had on red arm bands and sunglasses to give her a  
mysterious look. With an easy kick, she flipped over the gate and sauntered  
into the school. Since the gate was over fifteen feet high and had been  
designed to keep the students from climbing it, the jump was breathtaking  
since she did it without dropping her ice cream.  
  
She strolled down the halls until she located the office and walked inside.  
The secretary looked up in surprise as she entered. "Where is your uniform  
young lady?" She snapped.  
  
"Since I'm here to register, I don't have one yet." Ranma snapped back.  
  
"Alright, here fill out this paper work." Ranma took half an hour to fill  
in the blanks and let the lady do her job. She sat down, leaned back, and  
was instantly asleep.  
  
"Mrs. Ranma?"  
  
"What?" Ranma asked without opening her eyes.  
  
"What is your family name?"  
  
"Its..." Uh oh, Ranma thought, she hadn't planned on this. "...Ranma  
Masaki. Yeah."  
  
"Mazaki?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
The secretary gave her a weird look, shrugged, and made up a folder and  
handed her some papers to sign. "Am I to assume you are currently on your  
own?"  
  
"I'm staying at a local Shinto Temple while I'm in school, after that I  
don't know."  
  
A tall lady with long green hair walked into the room and handed a folder  
to the secretary. "Here is Miss. Misaki's school records Mrs. Taki."  
  
"Thank you Mrs. Meioh, where were they I didn't find them in the incoming  
students files."  
  
"Miss. Masaki is one of my students, I was over looking her file and making  
some notes."  
  
"Huh?" Said Ranma, totally lost at this point and wondering who this woman  
was and how she knew she needed to help.  
  
"Come along Ranma, my name is Setsuna Meioh, I'm going to be your school  
counselor."  
  
"Um...alright." She stood and followed the tall woman to a set of offices  
several doors down.  
  
As they entered she closed and locked the door and motioned for Ranma to  
sit down. "Every now and then someone comes here and makes friend, I won't  
mention names Miss. Masaki, but your friend has requested that we let you  
get set up in a new life."  
  
"Wha..."  
  
Setsuna smiled and handed Ranma large envelope. "In there is everything you  
will need to get set up in your new life, identification and such set up  
under your new name."  
  
"How did..."  
  
"Your new friend is worried about you and arranged everything ahead of time  
and apologizes for any problems that may arise from this help." Setsuna  
handed Ranma her class schedule and escorted her out of the room, talking  
nonsense and lying through her teeth even as she pushed the confused girl  
out into the hall and shut the door in her face. "Thank you and good luck at  
the uniform store Ranma, I'll talk to you tomorrow." Slam.  
  
"Huh?" Ranma said and blinked a few times.  
  
'What the hell was that about?' Ranma thought as she went over to the  
stairs and sat down. She dug into the envelope and found to her surprise a  
wallet, male version, filled with about 50,000 yen, a student ID with her  
picture on it and the name she had just made up on the spot. There was also  
a library card, and a bank book registered to her, it had a 500,000 yen  
balance. There was also an ATM card and a check book with everything made  
out to her. Every bit of it looked legal.  
  
She also found a note addressed to a Ranma Saotome and paled in shock.  
  
Ranma Saotome:  
  
This may come as a shock to you, but you don't need to panic. The Sailor  
Scouts set this up and would like for you to forgive them for any pain or  
fear their offer caused you. Everything in this packet is legal and yours  
free of charge, we will be contacting you again to explain in more detail  
what the others messed up yesterday.  
  
Your friend  
  
Ranma sighed, this was getting weirder than usual and she had thought she  
was used to weird. What could all of this mean? Those girl's had said she  
was a Princess of all things and that was impossible, she was born a boy and  
transformed into this shape. If anything she was a prince under a curse, and  
even that was a bit far fetched. She had grown used to this female body over  
time and could live with it if she had to, but this crap about her being a  
Princess was a little weird. She would have to give those girls the truth  
just to get them off her back, a guy couldn't be a Princess.  
  
She put the stuff away and pulled out the last item, the address of the  
uniform shop and just what she had to get. To her surprise there was even  
some sizes written down for her, she recognized them as her bust and waist  
sized and blushed a little. Even after all these months she still wore her  
boxers and no bra, but they were a required part of the uniform so she had  
to wear them or get in trouble. Standing up she ran outside and jumped on  
top of the fence, looked at the address, and ran in the right direction  
while on top of the fence.  
  
The place was located a couple miles away so Ranma arrived in about ten  
minutes, still on top of a fence, she had just jumped over the various  
intersections. She looked the place over and wondered why she was feeling  
this weird foreboding the closer she got to the place, but shrugged it off,  
it was probably nothing of interest to her. It was decent looking place and  
Ranma headed inside and looked around, a sales lady headed over way and  
smiled as she saw a sale. Ranma smiled back and handed her the card.  
  
"I'm starting at Juban in the morning and need a couple of uniforms."  
  
"Lets step into the changing room and let me see if these sizes are correct  
and I'll get your uniform for you."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Several minutes later Ranma was blushing as the sales lady held up a pair  
of white and yellow boxers, her eyebrow twitching.  
  
"Um..." Ranma started.  
  
"Let me get you some proper underwear and I won't ask why your wearing  
these."  
  
"..." Ranma said, still blushing as she stood there in the nude.  
  
The uniform was a blue skirt with a white top, a blue neck tie and was the  
most mortifying thing Ranma had ever put on. She felt stupid and wanted to  
burn the thing, her new panties were itchy and bra was pinching her in  
places she wanted to forget about. Of course that was her opinion, to the  
sales lady she was nodding and smiling at the gorgeous girl in front of her  
who looked like she had been born to wear that skirt. Her legs were  
perfectly proportioned and her but was just the right size to drive all  
thoughts out of any male that saw her, the lady smiled. This one was  
perfect, she was just a tomboy waiting to bloom, then Ranma itched her  
crotch and farted, ruining the image. The red head smiled and giggled a  
little as she adjusted her breasts by lifting them and adjusting th bra.  
  
"H-how is the fit?"  
  
"A little snug, but nothing I can't live with, though the bra is a bit to  
frilly for my tastes."  
  
"Oh, I thought it was perfect for you."  
  
"I don't wear them all that often, my idiot father trained me in the Art  
for over ten years, he treated me as a boy for the whole time so I don't'  
have much experience with these things. I'd rather wear a boy's uniform if  
you have one, that's what I did at the last school I was at."  
  
"With that body?!" The sales lady said, sighing at the stupidity of a man  
that would hide this magnificent creature.  
  
"Yeah, can you believe it?" Ranma said, oblivious to the sales ladies tone.  
She adjusted the panties thought her skirt and sighed in relief even as the  
lady twitched.  
  
"I can tell you have never worn this type of stuff before, you need some  
practice."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"The more you adjust your underwear, the more attention you will draw to  
yourself and what your adjusting. You will also need to keep your legs  
closed, a skirt hikes up when you sit down and you could accidentally flash  
your panties to some unsuspecting man when you don't want to."  
  
"I didn't know that, but I have a way to keep it from happening so don't  
worry about it." Ranma said, covertly looking at the pile of clothing that  
had been brought in. The PE shorts would solve a lot of problems if she wore  
them under the skirt. She adjusted the cuffs on her shirt and decided she  
would be putting her Martial Arts Sewing to use tonight to solve some  
problems with the outfit. "Is there a jacket that goes with this?"  
  
"Yes, though it costs extra."  
  
"Get me one, make it a size bigger than it needs to be, I'll be making some  
adjustments to it."  
  
"It's against school rules to make to many alterations."  
  
"I'm a martial artist ma'am, I need something I can fight in. The  
alterations will not be noticeable on the outside of the clothing."  
  
The jacket was in as bad a shape as the skirt and the shirt, all of it was  
to constricting to be used in combat. She had a lot of work to do tonight if  
she was going to be ready by morning. Suddenly there is a scream from  
outside the small room and Ranma runs out in her new uniform to look around,  
she spots the sales lady just as she collapses at the feet of this thing  
standing over her. It is about seven foot high, covered in scales and  
female, differently female. The giant tits and large bra are a dead give  
away.  
  
Blushing furiously, Ranma gets in a set stance as she looks in her  
direction and grins with pointed teeth. The dark energy wafting off the  
thing nearly knocks Ranma off her feet and makes her mouth go dry, but the  
excitement of a fight kicks in and has her more than ready. "So are you like  
the stupid electric monster I destroyed a yesterday?" Ranma says and smiles  
evilly.  
  
"YOUR the one that killed Electrica? For that you get to die now, as  
painfully as possible, I'm Silky Doll and your dead!" The monster woman  
yelled, her large breasts bouncing wildly.  
  
Ranma found her eyes glued to the large bouncing objects and blushed an  
even brighter shade of red. "Um..."  
  
Silky Doll raised her arm and fired off a beam of light that Ranma dodged  
without even thinking about it, she couldn't stop blushing. Doll screamed  
and ran forward and threw a punch at Ranma, but she twisted, grabbed Doll's  
arm, and threw her over her shoulder and through the front door. It exploded  
outward in a shower of splinters as Doll flew across the street and slammed  
into a wall, Ranma came running out of the destroyed door. Her blush was gone  
as she started to get more into the fight, she would have to be careful if  
she continued this fight. That thing was a very good looking monster and  
Ranma was reluctant to take it out because of that.  
  
The pointed teeth were a good distraction though, they would allow her to  
keep her mind out of the gutter while she fought. There it was across the  
street, Ranma didn't think she had thrown it that far, she hopped up on a  
car and jumped across the street. She was cursing as she landed, her skirt  
had billowed up as she came down and flashed her new white panties to  
everyone in the smal crowd that was swiftly gathering. The loud gasp of male  
hormones was something she didn't need to deal with right now, so she got in  
fighting stance and let he aura flare up around her.  
  
Sensing an opening, Ranma ran forward and started to beat on the monster at  
super speed, several loud bangs are heard as she breaks the sound barrier  
with her punches and kicks. For Silky Doll, she is unable to react fast  
enough and soon falls to dust, releasing the energy she had gathered  
earlier. Ranma smirks and wonders how many of these wimps she will have to  
take out, no matter how pretty they were.  
  
"How dare you interfere again!" Yelled a male voice from above her.  
  
Ranma rolled her eyes, looked up a Jedite and smiled at him, the crowd  
vanished as quickly as it had formed. Jedite floated down to the ground, his  
eyes glinting with hatred as he looked Ranma over. "Hello blondie, what is  
it this time?"  
  
"I will teach you the meaning of pain as I kill you!" Jedite yelled and  
launched forward.  
  
Stepping forward, Ranma broke through Jedite's defenses and hit him in the  
face with a straight arm to th jaw, kicked him in the balls, and body  
slammed the man into the concrete so hard it shattered around him. The  
difference this time was that Jedite was prepared for the girl's fighting  
ability, so his magic deflected most of the damage. He jumped to his feet  
and fired out several blasts of energy, Ranma dodged and weaved as fast as  
she could, but wasn't' fast enough to get out of the line of fire fast  
enough. A large blast caught her in the chest and exploded, blowing the body  
back several yards, she landed in a heap but was able to roll to her feet.  
Her clothing was shredded and her bra was showing through some of the tears  
and rips, the skirt was now a weird looking mini skirt. Ranma could feel the  
blood running down her leg from the cut she had taken on her upper thigh,  
her grin was a mile wide and was enough that it frightened Jedite more than  
he was able to admit.  
  
To Be Continued...  
**********  
  
Notes - This story is going well, but a little slow since it is not one of  
my main ones, it is just an idea I'm toying with at the moment. I may cross  
this with Tenchi, but at the moment I don't know, well see how things work  
out in the future. For anyone familiar with my stories, I like to get a lot  
of fighting done, this story is no exception. If I write the whole thing  
out, I will probably take it clear though the death of Beryal and Metalia,  
the main history will be very changed as I go along. There will also be  
plenty of lite hentai parts, after all Ranma is to new at being a girl to  
cover up thing he used to care less about.  
  
Notes - Setsuna is a kind of helpful background character that is there to  
make sure things go as they are supposed to, the inners don't even know she  
exists yet and those that do can be counted on one hand. 


	3. Chapter 02 Revised

**********  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 02  
By C. Rose  
(c)2001  
  
**********  
  
For the first time in months, Ranma had come across a guy who was willing  
to fight her tooth and nail, the fact that he wanted to kill her didn't  
matter in the least. It just meant that they would be fighting that much  
harder, Jedite was this evil bad guy with magical abilities and a lot of raw  
power at his disposal. Ranma knew she could beat him, she just wanted to see  
what he had to offer. She had already taken him down once and that had been  
too easy.  
  
Ranma ignored the fact that he had already gotten in good blow and sliced  
her leg open somehow, it was just a flesh wound and nothing to worry about.  
The pool of blood at her feet meant nothing to her as she limped to the  
side, circling the blonde idiot. "What's the matter, that all you got?"  
  
"What is your name girl?" Jedite growled.  
  
"You may call me Ranko, Master of the School of Anything Goes Martial  
Arts."  
  
"I am Jedite, General of Queen Beryl's army's and soon to be King of  
Earth."  
  
"Well J-chan, you have to actually defeat me first and your track record  
isn't so hot."  
  
Jedite screamed and rushed forward, throwing a punch that Ranma barely  
ducked. She blinked a few times and reevaluated Jedite's skill, he may be  
dependent on his magic, but he has learned to use it effectively. His speed  
is nearly equal to her own now, but Ranma just dodged and weaved. Second  
rule her idiot father had taught her, never show your true strength even in  
a major battle. Ranma's leg came up and hit Jedite right in the chin and  
sent him flying back, she didn't give him time to get very far though as she  
spun around kicked him in the side and booted him into a nearby building.  
  
He impacted with a cry of pain, face first, and slid down to the ground  
moaning. Jedite's mind, though filled with pain was confused, this girl was  
breaking through his magical defenses as if they didn't exist. Even Sailor  
Moon had been helpless before his force fields and power blasts, but this  
Ranko was seemed to know something he didn't. Jedite crawled back to his  
feet and decided that this girl was going to be dead by the time he was done  
with there. "Alright, you've pushed me to far girl."  
  
"Ohh, I'm shaking in my sneakers here." Ranma taunted.  
  
Jedite held out his hand and a sword and shield appeared, a blazing aura of  
power formed around him and his uniform shifted to a more stately style with  
a cape that billowed with the aura he was producing. The sword glinted in  
the sunlight and burst into black fire. "Die bitch!" He growled out, his  
eyes blazing with fury.  
  
Ranma crouched down and burst into a blazing blue aura and studied her  
opponent, he kept surprising her. She could feel his power now, but is  
wasn't the evil he had been producing before, but a pure kind of power that  
the Scouts used. Where in the world had he learned this from, she thought.  
Growling deep in her throat, Ranma's aura turns red and flares out a couple  
of feet even as she launches forward. Jedite does the same and leads in with  
the sword, leaving black and silver after images as it moves. Side stepping  
the sword, Ranma kicks Jedite several times, but his armor is tougher than  
it looks and isn't damaged.  
  
The sword blurs in a dizzying pattern of death as Ranma weaves in and out  
of the man's defenses, but she is distracted and gets hit in the face with  
the shield sending her stepping back. Right in the path of Jedite's sword as  
it slices her upper arm open, making her gasp in pain. Then it spreads  
quickly and fills her body, Ranma staggers back and falls to her knees as  
her head flares as if it is about to explode. She screams in pain and falls  
over clutching her head, tears of pain dripping off her cheeks.  
  
"This is one of the famous Pain Blades we used to defeat the Moon Kingdom  
originally, they haven't seen the light of day in centuries, but it looks  
like their power is still very effective, eh, bitch? Can't talk, I'm not  
surprised, these things have brought the most powerful of fighters to their  
knees, right where you are."  
  
"Ahhh..." Ranma said.  
  
"Now what should I do with you? You are going to die, but how shall I do  
it, a limb at at time, or months of endless torture...Bwhahahahahahahaha!!!"  
  
Through her haze of pain, Ranma had one thought, this man is an absolute  
idiot! He had me down and stands there to gloat? Ranma groans and reaches  
for her full strength and her aura flares out again, this time it is edged  
in a blue band of confidence and she slowly raises to her feet, her crescent  
moon flaring brightly and making her aura even bigger. The pain is more  
than she has ever had to endure, but the flare of her aura seems to bleed  
the dark attack off and within seconds it is down to tolerable levels.  
Jedite is still laughing as she moves to uppercut him with the force of  
semi, lifting him into the air and dropping him like a sack of potatoes. The  
sword drops and shatters as it hits the ground, it soon vanishes like those  
monsters he was summoning.  
  
"A crescent moon..." Jedite gasps and goes pale, trying to crawl away.  
  
Ranma continues her attack by kicking him into the air and using it as a  
free floating punching bag, punching and kicking the idiot until his entire  
body is black and blue, his eyes are rolled back in unconsciousness, and she  
is sure of victory. She is about to put him down for the final time when  
Jedite's body vanishes out of her hand in a swirl of cherry blossoms.  
  
Ranma's eyes narrow and she relaxes, looking around for where Jedite had  
gone. Something inside her is telling her that he was teleported away, but  
what that thing is, she has no idea. Then she senses something and her head  
snaps around to look at a nearby roof top and spots a tall green haired  
Sailor Scout holding a weird looking staff. She jumps down and walks over,  
calmly assessing the situation and smiling at Ranma. She pulls a mirror from  
behind her back and holds it up for Ranma to see the bright silver crescent  
moon glowing on her forehead.  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"That is the mark of the Royal Family of the Moon, Ranma, only those of  
that family can have that mark and your display of power just now proved  
that you are a member of that family. That marks you as a princess of the  
moon, you have royal blood in you Ranma and it is beginning to adapt to the  
power that is within you, making you stronger in every way."  
  
"I am not a Princess lady, I am a man, I was born a man and will always be  
one."  
  
"Do you think I didn't look at your past Ranma Saotome, I am the Guardian  
of Time, I can watch anything that has ever happened or will be. You were  
given this form for a reason, you don't have to act like a Princess as you  
understand them Ranma. NO matter how you act or dress, you are a Princes of  
the Moon Kingdom. You make what kind of Princess you will become, not what  
others think you should act like. The Scouts need your help with Jedite and  
the others that will eventually follow him in the years to come. Please  
Ranma, if you don't help, eventually the Scouts will be killed and the world  
will suffer under the heel of whoever it was that killed them. They are all  
that stands between peace and the destruction that the elements of evil that  
will try time and again to take this world."  
  
"Is that supposed to sway me, to make me take up a fight that is none of my  
business?" Ranma snapped. "What if I do help, then what, do I dress up in  
these stupid costumes and let all the perverts in the nation look up my  
skirt all in the name of love and peace?"  
  
"There is a magical field around those that wear this uniform Ranma, you  
could meet your father dressed like this and he wouldn't recognize you."  
  
"Yeah, he would be to busy trying to look up my skirt or chasing me  
around for a quick feel." Ranma grumbled.  
  
Pluto sighed and held up a Sailor Scout Pen with the symbol of the sun on  
it. "This is one of the only Sailor Scouts that was destined to never appear  
Ranma, Sailor Sol or Sun. When a girl takes up one of these pens and  
transforms into their Sailor Identity, the transformation multiplies their  
best assets, your strength would be incredible, as would your speed, and  
your Ki attacks would be strong enough to level entire city blocks if you  
used all the power available. Just imagine the amount of good you could do  
with that at your disposal."  
  
"A powerful toy is not enough to make me just drop my beliefs you know."  
  
Pluto stepped back and bowed and opened a large door that hadn't been there  
seconds before. "Then look upon the Gate of Time and see the possible  
futures that may come to be if you don't help us Ranma."  
  
The door opened to show a barren land scrape devoid of even plant life, the  
sky was almost pitch black, the light coming from a tiny pin prick of  
something high in the atmosphere. Pluto pointed to it. "That is what will  
happen if the Silence is brought to pass just a few years form now." The  
scene shifted again and showed Jedite and another man with long white hair  
pulling girls out of a line up of half naked girls, the surroundings looked  
like a labor camp of some kind. "This is a year form now, just a few short  
months before the Silence takes place, notice the girl being held by Jedite,  
that is someone you know, yes?"  
  
"...Shampoo?"  
  
"Her and the village are vaporized in one shot when they refuse to bow down  
to Queen Beryl's rule, only the girl's between fifteen and twenty are  
allowed to live and that is as you see them."  
  
"You said these are only possible futures?"  
  
"Yes, there are hundreds of possibilities to choose from, some like this,  
others where they were more lucky. It all depends on choices Ranma, will you  
accept this pen?"  
  
"I don't know..."  
  
"I can offer one more incentive Ranma, when you take up the mantel of  
Sailor Sol it will make you whole again. That means that your fear of cats  
will vanish and you will be able to learn how to control the true Neko-ken."  
  
"I-I...sigh, alright I accept."  
  
"Here, take it and say what is already in your heart."  
  
"Huh, I don't know about this..." Ranma hesitated.  
  
"You accepted Ranma, that was a promise to help the others wasn't it?"  
Pluto said.  
  
Ranma reached out and took the pen from Pluto, he had a strange feeling  
about this, and they both gasped as it turned into light fragments and  
formed around her arms as a pair of gold and black bracers. "W-what the  
hell?!"  
  
A surprised Pluto kept her face straight and replied. "You are the first  
new Scout to be born in over ten thousand years Ranma, it is adapting to you  
and making you a modern version of a Sailor Scout. Can you feel the power in  
your veins?"  
  
"I can...it's..."  
  
"Say the words Ranma."  
  
"SOL CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!!"  
  
This feeling of pure ecstasy filled Ranma and she moaned as she was lifted  
into the air, the bracers flare with a blinding light, when it recedes Ranma  
is clad in a fuku unlike any have ever seen before, reddish black leather  
body suit, a red and black skirt, a green front bow and a white back bow  
with the ribbons trailing nearly to the floor. She has on knee high reddish  
black boots, the arm bands now decorated with little crescent moons, and a  
tiara with a ruby in the center. This feeling was filling Ranma's soul and  
she shuddered a little as she nearly came right there, what ever it was she  
felt wonderful. Strong and fast, powerful and unstoppable enough to take on  
all of the demons in Jedite's arsenal. "Whoa!!"  
  
"See what I mean?"  
  
"This may be a little much..."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"This could become addicting if I let it."  
  
"That is always the same with the first transformation, it is the power  
adapting itself to your body. The fact that you have royal blood in you is  
probably what is making it so pleasurable for you, the transformation is  
very intense."  
  
"Okay, I could get used to this." Ranma said and suppressed a moan and  
shuddered a little. "Hey wait a minute, it's broad daylight here, why  
haven't we been seen yet?"  
  
"I am the Guardian of Time Ranma, I made us just about a half second ahead  
of normal time, so everything is stopped until I start us up again." Pluto  
said with a hint of arrogance.  
  
"Is there anything else I need to know?" Ranma asked.  
  
"As a Princess you will be receiving a cat adviser."  
  
"Ca-ca-cat?"  
  
"Your fears should be gone Ranma..."  
  
"Almost completely, but there is this feeling left over...I don't know how  
to describe it."  
  
"It's just reflex Ranma, you'll get over it in time. I'll send you a cat  
adviser as soon as I can." Pluto said, the girl didn't need to know that one  
had been sent for already and would be arriving inside a week. It had to  
come all the way from the Retreat, fairy cats were made to be such good  
companions too. With that thought, Pluto stepped into the gate and vanished  
in a swirl of fog. The course of time resumed and Ranma found herself above  
Tokyo bay, she screamed as she fell the twenty feet into the water, cursing  
green haired women all the way.  
  
AT the Time Gate Pluto laughed at her water logged friend.  
  
**********  
  
It was midnight when the guard dozed off to sleep and he opened his eyes  
and looked around carefully. For the first time in months the time was ripe  
for him to try again, they were getting lazy in their patrols. They must  
have thought him beaten or cowed, but he would never give up his freedom  
again, not after the Master. He raised an arm covered in fur and let his  
mind wander deep into untouched territory to call up a skill he hadn't  
touched in fifteen years. At first he couldn't remember the techniques, but  
after days of trying he had finally recalled them. His arm snapped out and  
hit the guard in the back of the head, she fell to the ground with a loud  
clatter.  
  
Snapping the bamboo door off it's string hinges, the escapee vanished from  
sight as it high tailed itself out of the cursed village of Amazons. Curse  
that ungrateful son of his and his dishonorable ways, he had worked to hard  
over the last few years to see his dreams destroyed like this. Genma Saotome  
raced along, his panda body running on it's hind legs like some well trained  
circus bear. Spears, arrows, darts, and a whole plethora of other objects  
were thrown at him as he raced along, dodging the pathetic Amazons attempts  
to capture him. Genma laughed, or growled in joy as he ran over a hill and  
vanished from sight.  
  
The Amazons stopped chasing the giant cowardly panda and laughed. "Do you  
think letting him go was a good idea, it only took him a whole three months  
to finally try and escape, I was beginning to think that he was retarded or  
something, I only left the cage door open ever night for weeks." Said  
Perfume.  
  
"True, and he still broke it when he escaped." Shampoo said.  
  
"Do you think he will find Ranma for us?"  
  
"Yes, he is the girl's father, he will find her eventually."  
  
"Then let us go, the idiot doesn't even know how to cover his tracks when  
he runs. I'm bored already. Are you sure you have everything you need?"  
  
"Oh yes." Shampoo said and pulled a large sword out of nowhere, moon light  
glinted off the blade, giving it an evil look. A half mile away a panda saw  
the girl's at the top of the hill, the sword, and the reflected light and  
ran for his life.  
  
**********  
  
-A Day in the Life of Ryoga the Wanderer-  
  
Ryoga was knocking snow off his boots as he looked around the jungle he  
found himself in, not ten minutes ago it had been snow so bad he had been  
having trouble seeing. Then he had jumped over this large crack in the ice  
and landed in this jungle, how the snow survived here he had no idea. All he  
did now was that some thing was calling him, but whenever he focused on it,  
he remembered his most prized memory of a topless girl smiling at him.  
(Ryoga's memories have always been a little delusional). He was still  
looking for Ranma, but felt it wasn't as important as it had been two years  
ago. Their trail had dried up completely and he had no idea where to look  
now, but that girl who was haunting his dreams kept popping up.  
  
She had traveled all over China studying with various masters and priests,  
if the rumors were true, she had learned how to user her chi. Ryoga wanted  
to ask out...er..challenge his mysterious beauty, but had no way to find her  
with his sense of direction. Then one day he had been thinking about her and  
felt her far away and he had run towards where he felt her, crossing  
jungles, cemetery's, mountains, cities, and lakes until he had become  
totally lost. It must have taken half an hour at least, at one point he had  
felt he was close, but had lost it when he tripped and fell in that lake.  
Some Americans had pulled him out, but since he didn't know English very  
well they had taken him to the nearest port. When he had stepped off the  
little walkway down to the docks he had turned back to thank them, but ended  
up tripping and getting a face full of snow.  
  
Where the hell that came from he had no idea, maybe it had snowed when he  
wasn't paying attention. Americans always were a bit weird, maybe it was  
because of that weird weather. Now he was in a jungle, it looked familiar  
for some reason as he walked. Suddenly there was a doorway ahead of him  
between a couple of trees and he went through, maybe they had a phone he  
could borrow or decent directions. He walked out on stage and noticed that  
there were a lot of half naked men running around and a totally naked girl  
chained to a wall, she was screaming in some language he didn't know. With a  
shrug Ryoga batted the men of the stage into a crowd he hadn't noticed and  
shattered the wall the girl was chained to.  
  
She wrapped her naked body around him and tried to kiss him, but he  
couldn't see anything with his eyes close and what he was feeling was  
tempting enough. He could feel the blood going to his nose while he carried  
her off the stage and tried to ask her for directions to Juban. Eventually  
he gave up and sat her down and waved goodbye, he missed the sad look on her  
face as she slumped down, naked, on the beach. The sign in the background  
said 'Welcome to the Bahamas'.  
  
(Note-I just had to put this in here, it just fit for some reason...heh)  
  
**********  
  
Akiko was not having a good day, she had thought it was going to be such a  
good day too. She had woken up early, fixed herself breakfast without  
screwing it up and even managed to get to school on time for a change. She  
had spent most of the day finishing off her homework and fantasizing about  
some of the guys in her class, just a typical, normal day. After school she  
had ran home and quickly changed into her casual clothes to go and meet her  
friends for a lazy afternoon walk through the mall. That was when the  
problems began, after a couple of hours her friends had headed on home, but  
there were still a few things that she needed so she decided to stick around  
and get them on her own.  
  
For some reason she had known that something was going to happen, but had  
ignored it, figuring she was just being silly. On the way home from the mall  
she had decided to take the long was and get a good look at the ocean before  
bed. She had been walking along the sidewalk, just along the beach that  
bordered the ocean, when three boys had come out of nowhere and dragged her  
down to a secluded part of the beach to have their fun with her. Now  
normally she would have been more than happy to help them out, but they had  
to start hitting her for no particular reason and that just pissed her off.  
She struggled for several minutes trying to find a decent leverage to throw  
the idiots off, they weren't even that good in the first place. Then the  
most amazing thing happened, the first of the three boys who was currently  
on lookout, let off a short scream and vanished.  
  
The amazing thing was that none of the boys seem to notice when he  
vanished, but Akiko had noticed a reddish black blur just milliseconds  
before he vanished. She was a little board so she didn't have anything else  
to do, all she really wanted was for the moron above her to finish what he  
was doing. She struggled a little more and caught a second vanishing act at  
the corner of her eye, as the second of the three boys vanished, but this  
time the last of the three took note and jumped to his feet. Just in time  
to see a tall red headed woman wearing a Sailor Scout fuku appear out of  
thin air and kicked him across the jaw with a spinning kick that launched  
him back over a dozen yards to land in the water at the edge of the beach.  
Akiko was a little amazed that he didn't get back up, then realized that the  
kick must have very powerful to have thrown him that far. She shrugged and  
hoped he got out of the water before he caught a cold or something.  
  
Akiko sat up and stretched the kinks out of her back before looking up at  
her savior. She had witnessed the regular Sailor Scouts on more than one  
occasion as they dealt with the various monsters that roamed around the area  
lately. None of them had looked anything like this one, there was an aura  
of power around her that could be felt more than a could be seen. She had  
long red hair that fell down her back, to well below her thighs, it had been  
braided tightly and tied back with a small black bow at the top of her head.  
The girls body suit seemed to be made out of a reddish black wet leather  
design that made her attractive body even more gorgeous to look at.  
  
"Are you alright?" Asked Ranma as she stood above the half naked Akiko.  
  
"Oh sure." Akiko said as she stood up and adjusted her clothing. "I've  
had this happen to me a few times in the past, so it's become somewhat  
boring really. I mean those guys didn't even doing anything of interest, it  
was boring and not really very original or stimulating." Akiko shrugged and  
dusted her skirt off.  
  
"Um...sure..." Ranma said, she looked a little confused. "Would you like  
me to help you home?"  
  
"No thanks." Akiko said as she went over to where the guys had piled their  
closed and stole their wallets. "Those guys owe me some new clothes and  
need to replace the groceries that they destroyed when they grabbed me."  
Akiko said as she stripped every last bill out of the three wallets and  
started to start counting it out. "Look at this, cheep bastards, this isn't  
enough to cover what they ripped or destroyed."  
  
Ranma edged away from the strange girl and resisted the urge to sweatdrop,  
she waved goodbye and with a couple of large jumps was soon running across  
the rooftops of the Juban district. As she ran, Ranma's thoughts turned to  
the green haired Sailor Scout that had called herself the Guardian of Time.  
Because of her, Ranma knew that the next few days and possibly weeks were  
going to be very interesting if she survived them. Sure she had taken on  
Jedite and a couple of his goons and beaten him somewhat easily, but she  
also knew that he was an intelligent being and would adapt to her skill in  
any way that was needed to defeat her. As a martial artist and a student of  
that idiot Genma Saotome, she knew that the upcoming fights were going to be  
more dangerous than ever and that she couldn't afford to underestimate  
Jedite. No matter how bad a fighter he was, he must have done something to  
have earned his current place as head of the invaders troops.  
  
The same could be said for her heat father, he was a thief, a glutton, a  
liar, and a whole slew of other questionable titles. Still the old fart was  
possibly one of the top 50 fighters in the entire world no matter how  
cowardly and stupid he was. Ranma figured that she would place Jedite in the  
same category as her retarded father, he would adapt and learn whatever was  
necessary to defeat her and accomplish his mission. Of course, she also  
thought she might be giving Jedite a little too much intelligence, but it  
was better to overestimate his skill than to underestimate it. A little  
while later, after running at a near sprinting pace for over an hour, Ranma  
reached the park that was only a few blocks away from the shrine that she  
was staying at. She wasn't even tired when she landed in the middle of the  
park and looked around, but the park was surprisingly empty. Ranma wasn't  
sure how to detransform, but after several minutes of thinking about it she  
concentrated and managed to pull all of her newfound power into her body.  
  
Her uniform flared with a bright red light and then vanished within her,  
Ranma noticed almost instantly that if she concentrated she could feel the  
power boiling just below the surface of her Ki. The two powers seemed to be  
mixing together and working in concert with each other, and the more she  
concentrated the quicker they seemed to merge together. Walking over to a  
nearby tree, Ranma sits down and begins to meditate in the way that Cologne  
had taught her back when she had visited their village. The old bat had  
been very impressed with her level of training and skill and had inducted  
her as an honorary Amazon. She hadn't really wanted to go along with  
Cologne's idea because she didn't agree with a good number of the strange  
laws that they practiced. It had only been through sheer luck that she  
hadn't gotten into trouble with any of the Amazons before then. Shampoo had  
been a different matter, but she didn't want to dwell on that very much.  
  
Ranma performed the mental techniques that Cologne had suggested and  
quickly entered a meditative trance. From there she spent the next two  
hours going over all of the events that had taken place in the last 24  
hours, she did not like what she was seeing at all. She also had the  
distinct impression that she had been tricked in some way, but she just  
couldn't put her finger on exactly how it was accomplished. Her swim back to  
the islands had been surprisingly boring considering how far out she had  
been, it reminded her of her first swim from Japan to China and he idiot's  
idea of training during the swim. The Saotome School of Martial Arts had  
several techniques that allowed them to fight while underwater, she recalled  
having to perform them while hovering in the water about thirty feet below  
the surface with the old man sitting on his raft up above and eating dinner.  
If that hadn't been enough, she found that he wanted her to do this several  
times a day in shark infested waters. Panda no Baka!  
  
Cologne had taught her this one move called the Shark Fist, it was  
particularly interesting technique that allowed a fighter to hold her hand  
in such a way as to throw a punch that sent out a shark shaped blast of  
water at her opponent. She had been wanting to test the technique out on  
the old man ever since she learned it, but fighting in the water was  
actually a very rare occurrence so she doubted that would ever happen. As  
she continued to meditate another question came into her head and this one  
she still couldn't fully grasp.  
  
What exactly was it about her transformation into a girl that made the  
Sailor Scouts think she was a Princess? Sure, that lady had tried to explain  
to her, but for all she had said it still didn't make a whole hell of a lot  
of sense. There was just no way that she could be a Princess since she had  
been born as a man and raised as one. Every day of her life her father had  
beat into her head that the girls were weak and useless. That opinion had  
been altered drastically over last few months, but certain ways of thinking  
were almost instinctual for her and getting around the fact that she had  
once been a man was simply impossible for her to forget.  
  
Ranma stood and stretched, even after two hours of meditating she still  
hadn't seen a single soul within the park. It was a little strange even to  
her, but figured that since she couldn't hear people screaming in terror or  
sense any kind of dark presence nearby with her new powers, it must have been  
something else. The walk out of the park and down the street to the shrine  
stairs took her about ten minutes and another three to run up the stairs at  
full speed and taking them three the time. She stopped at the top and took  
a few minutes to relax before hitting inside, but stopped with her foot just  
inside the door when her danger sense when off and alerted her to a presence  
nearby that was watching her very intently.  
  
"Who's out there?!" Ranma asked loudly.  
  
"I was wondering when you would notice me." Said a distinctly female  
voice.  
  
"You've been watching me for all of thirty seconds, I've been on high alert  
all afternoon and I would have noticed you no matter how much you try to  
conceal your presence." Ranma snapped.  
  
The voice cackled several seconds before subsiding into quiet giggles.  
"You're right, I just wanted to see how you would react and to see if the  
information I received about you was entirely accurate. From what I've seen  
so far you are far more powerful than you look."  
  
"Please come out where I can see you." Ranma said as she looked at the  
bush where the voice was coming from.  
  
"I'll warn you ahead of time, I'm a fairy cat." Said the cat as its  
stepped out of the bushes and padded its way over to where Ranma was  
standing. "You may call me Ito."  
  
She froze at the mere mention of the word cat and started to shiver as it  
stepped out and walked over to her. The fear of cats may have been taken  
care of, but the basic reaction to a cat was still very much ingrained into  
Ranma's mind. Ranma found that it took every ounce of her control to keep  
from running at the first glimpse of the large feline. It certainly wasn't  
of any particular breed that she recognized because of its red fur, but it  
certainly could not have ever been mistaken for a common house cat. Ito was  
a very large cat that could have easily been mistaken for a small bobcat, it  
had bright red fur and a crescent moon symbol upon its forehead.  
  
"Hello Ito, I take it that your that cat the green haired lady told me  
about?"  
  
Ito sweatdropped. "Green haired lady?"  
  
"The only thing she called herself was a Time Lord or something, never  
actually gave me her name."  
  
"She is Setsuna, Sailor Pluto, and the Guardian of Time. NOT a Time Lord!"  
Ito said arroganly.  
  
"Whatever." Ranma returned with a smirk.  
  
"Lady Pluto is to be honored for her sacrifices and her power!"  
  
Ranma blinked. "Who is Lady Pluto?"  
  
"Growl...Sailor Pluto is also the last living Princess of the Kingdom of  
Pluto. She is royalty in every way of the word."  
  
"Lots of strange titles for some green haired chick." Ranma muttered under  
her breath.  
  
"Green haired chick!" Ito snapped, her red fur standing on end.  
  
"So tell me about yourself Ito." Ranma asked suddenly.  
  
"Grrrr...I am to be your adviser, companion, and guardian if anything goes  
wrong."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"All Royalty is given the option of having a Farie Cat as an adviser, it is  
an honor and a privlege."  
  
"So your like a talking pet?"  
  
"What?!!"  
  
"Oh I know, I need to get you a scratching post, some cat food, a collar,  
tags, shots...etc, etc..." Ranma said ditz like, her eyes sparkling.  
  
Ito was starting to get mad and was putting off an aura of anger, she  
didn't see Ranma hide her smirk as she continued to list the things she  
would have to have done to have a pet. She sweat dropped and hissed in fury  
as Ranma listed giving her a flea bath, and popped her claws when she  
mentioned house training. Ito pounced on Ranma's ankle in righteous fury,  
or tired to. Ranma eeped and vanished as if teleported, Ito sailed through  
the after image of Ranma and slammed into the side of a tree with a loud  
thump. She slid the ground painfully, thinking that the first rule of all  
Fairy Cats had been broken fairly easily. Never hurt or attack one's  
companion, Ito groaned and added an amendment, unless they deserved it.  
Ranma peaked at Ito from her position in the tree branches and giggled, her  
fear of cats was truly gone. She hadn't been scared in the least little  
bit, just reacting as she always did around a cat and even that would be  
gone in a little while. She hopped down and hesitantly picked up the red  
fur ball as she fought off her flee reaction to a cat. This was going to take  
some time, she concluded.  
  
Ranma hopped down and picked up the large red cat and wondered what she was  
going to fo with it. She cradled it as she carried it back to the shrine, so  
was lost in thought when she finished climbing the stairs. Which normally  
wouldn't have mattered, but she was still fighting her instincts when  
dealing with a cat.  
  
"Hello Miss. Ranma!"  
  
Ranma screamed and jumped to the top of the shrine, gasping for air she  
turned and saw that Rei's grandfather had walked out of the shrine. He was  
rolling on the ground laughing at her.  
  
"Hello yourself." Ranma said, icily calm.  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"You did offer me a place to stay didn't you?"  
  
"I don't mean that, most everyone in town is over at the new carnival that  
opened up yesterday."  
  
"This is the first I've heard of it, is that why the park is empty today?"  
  
"Yep, your the first good looking girl I've seen since yesterday." The old  
man sighed as if the world was coming to an end.  
  
Ranma glared at him. "Why did everyone go to this place?"  
  
"Free food."  
  
"Free food? You don't say, sounds like a place I have to check out." Ranma  
said and turned and ran down the stairs in a cloud of dust.  
  
Gramps shrugged as he stood back up and smiled, he stood there pretending  
to look at a non-existent watch. He was counting under his breath and  
looked up at where Ranma had vanished a few seconds before, to see the  
energetic red head bounce back up the stairs. "3-2-1..."  
  
"Hey old man, where is this place?" Ranma yelled from the top of the  
stairs, rubbing the back of her head and giggling nervously.  
  
"At the edge of the district, about ten miles from here."  
  
"Thanks!" Ranma yelled and bounced off into the trees.  
  
**********  
  
The place was called Dream Land, it had to be the stupidest name she had  
ever heard in her life. Ranma gagged a little at the sight of the park  
itself, it was all castles, romantic rides, and cute animals. Just a few of  
the things she avoided if she could get away with it, but the alure of free  
food was just to tempting to pass up. She was about to make her way across  
the giant parking lot when she heard something weird.  
  
"Mommy, mommy! Why is that girl on top of that bus, she's cute, can I go up  
there too, pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!" Said this  
little boy down below.  
  
Ranma groaned and sweatdropped as she realized she had been standing on top  
of a tour bus full of guests for the park. There were several family's that  
had just disembarked and were gaping at her in an annoying way. Then it got  
worse, all the commotion attracted the bus driver and he stepped into view  
and glared up at her. Ranma tried to look as innocent as she could, eyes  
wide, sparkling, and a little giggling could work wonders she'd found.  
  
"Hey you, on top of the bus, you owe me some money. I don't let anyone  
freeload on my bus!" Yelled the driver as he climbed up on the bus, not  
fooled in the least.  
  
"Drat!" Ranma yelled as she launched off the bus, to the top of a nearby  
car, and to another bus that was just driving by. She landed and waved good  
by to ranting driver of the other bus and grinned, this time she would get  
off before it stopped. Ten minutes later Ranma stepped into the park, she  
had almost decided not to go when she found out just how much a ticket cost  
to get in, she was nearly broke. Luckily there had been a young guy working  
the line she chose, he had given her a discount when she smiled at him and  
blinked her eyes. Boy's were idiots, she had found out pretty quickly  
during her trip across China after ditching her father.  
  
The park was even worse inside, though she did see some things she liked as  
she wandered around. There were these robotic animals running around with  
little kids on them, their parents in the back round laughing at them. A  
lady dressed up as a robotic princess of some kind or another was controlling  
the animals with a control disguised as an apple. For some reason the scene  
gave her the creeps so she avoided the unnatural thing easily. She could feel  
the princess thing watching her as she walked away from the sickening cute  
scene. Ranma continued to explore around the park for an hour or so before  
she found the free food, it was candies and cakes at a nearby castle. She  
shuddered and wondered why something like this was so...damned cute. Still,  
she suppressed her gag reflex and headed inside just as they were closing  
the doors, slipping in just behind a blonde girl with the oddest hair style.  
She had a friend with her that looked a little familiar, but Ranma blinked  
as she realized that she had encountered the girl at the temple the day she  
came by to drop off those scrolls...two or three days ago.  
  
"Are you here for the free candy too?" Usagi asked the red head that had  
slipped in with them.  
  
"Yep, I can never pass up free sweets." Ranma said with a grin. She had  
found out early that she had sweet tooth in this new body, things like candy  
and suckers were great, chocolate was to die for, and she could eat ice  
cream by the barrel full.  
  
Usagi giggled and nodded. "I can believe that! I'm Usagi Tsukino and this  
is my friend Rei Hino."  
  
"We've met." Rei said.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, martial arts extraordinaire."  
  
"Ohhhh! Martial Arts, that is so cool!" Usagi said, she looked as spaced as  
she sounded too.  
  
Rei rolled her eyes, but after what she witnessed when the girl had toasted  
Jedite with her bare hands, she was willing to believe it.  
  
Ranma giggled at the girl's facial expression. "Yep, I'm the best there is  
too."  
  
"So what kind of candies and junk food do you think were going to find  
here?"  
  
"Probably the usual stuff..." Ranma said, but trailed off as the hallway  
was beginning to fill with smoke. "...what's going on?"  
  
"Huh?" Asked Usagi as she just started to notice the smoke.  
  
"I sense danger here!" Rei said, looking around franticly.  
  
"I do to, but nothing to bad." Ranma said, she could feel something evil  
nearby, but it was pathetically weak.  
  
"What do you mean my that?! It's practically dripping off the walls!" Rei  
yelled in Ranma's ear.  
  
Ranma winced and backed off, this girl had a real problem with being nice  
it seemed. She lashed out at whoever seemed to be a good target for her  
temper, even at the temple she had yelled at her for startling her that way.  
It seemed she wasn't all that nice of a person, well, Ranma decided not to  
go that far. Maybe she had a good reason for being so...  
  
"Hey Usagi, why is your friend such a grouch?" Ranma asked loud enough for  
all of them to hear, she grinned innocently.  
  
"WHAT?!!" Rei yelled.  
  
Usagi blinked as she was distracted from the smoke filling the hallway.  
"For as long as I've known her, I thing she just likes to be mad at people."  
Usagi said helpfully.  
  
"USAGI!!" Rei yelled, her friends pig tails trailing away behind her from  
the power of the yell.  
  
"Well she is a good friend too, though she tends to get a little vocal."  
  
"I noticed that the other day too when she yelled at me for running up the  
temple steps." Ranma said, watching Rei out of the corner of her eye.  
  
Rei growled. "You nearly ran me down!"  
  
"I missed you by a mile when I flipped over you."  
  
"You nearly took my head off with that stunt!"  
  
"Oh please, I haven't messed up a flip like that since I was eight years  
old and that was because the old fart had greased the rocks I was using to  
practice on." Ranma stated and folded her arms across her chest and nodded  
superiorly.  
  
"W-why y-y-you arrogant piece of sh..." Rei turned red and her battle aura  
started to form up when she was interrupted by the appearance of the robotic  
princess.  
  
"Hah, like your any better Miss. Temper Tantrum." Ranma yelled right back.  
  
"Ex-cuse Me, but I-I would like t-o..."  
  
"Shut up!" Ranma and Rei yell out and punched the thing, in the face, at  
the same time.  
  
With a deafening clang the would be robotic princess is hit with enough  
force to dent it's metal body, it fly's back and crashes though a wall. It's  
body is cracked and shattered where Rei and Ranma had hit it and it's  
illusion flickers on and off, going from super cute princess to this really  
ugly brown and green mockery of the princess. It would have been really  
scary if it hadn't been imbedded in a wall with the occasional spark going  
off.  
  
"Now look what you did you tomboy!" Ranma yelled.  
  
"I'm not the one that hit it so hard idiot!" Rei countered.  
  
"Picky, picky!"  
  
"Y-you...you...you..." Rei growled and punched Ranma in the face, only to  
see her smile suddenly and cock her head to the side so that her fist misses  
by mere millimeters.  
  
"That all you got?" Ranma asks with a smirk.  
  
"Wow!" Usagi says, her eyes wide.  
  
"H-how did you do that?" Rei gasps.  
  
"Just reflex really, ten years on the road with my old man learning the Art  
and you could do it to."  
  
"Ten years..."  
  
"Yep, you've got potential at this you know, just the right amount of anger  
and violence. This was a lot of fun Rei, we have to do it again sometime. I  
haven't had a decent argument since I ditched the old man a few months ago."  
Ranma said with a beautiful smile.  
  
Rei blinked in confusion.  
  
"Let's go and grab some of that candy." Ranma said, turning to go back down  
the hall. Usagi right on her heels.  
  
"You aren't going anywhere." Says the princess as she climbs back to her  
feet shakily. She opens her mouth and this red mist gushes out and quickly  
fills the hall, it starts to make all of them a little dizzy. Ranma had  
tensed at the sound of her voice and spun around just in time to get a face  
full of the red mist, she staggers down the hall a ways and leans against  
the closed doors to the main hall.  
  
Ranma shakes her head and tires to clear it of the strange hallucinogenic  
effect it seems to have. Down the hall she hears the girls and realizes that  
she had accidentally left them behind. She staggers back up the hall just as  
there is this red and white flash of light that temporarily blinds her, but  
her senses suddenly pick up two very power full sources of power that seen  
oddly familiar. This needs looking into, Ranma thinks and concentrate and  
uses her Ki to clear her mind.  
  
For a few seconds it seems to be working and she sees this odd mockery of  
the robotic princess floating above the floor holding a glowing apple, but  
her mind can't hold the image and she finds herself in this meadow. She sees  
some movement off in the distance and sees one of the Scouts she had met the  
other day when she fought Jedite, Sailor Mars. She didn't recognize the  
other one, but assumed it was the one that had been asleep on the roof,  
Sailor Moon. The princess was handing this wreath of flowers to Moon when  
Mars yelled and grabbed it out of the princess' hand, yelped and snatched her  
hand back. Ranma gasped as the wreath turned into a snake as it hit the  
ground and turned to stone.  
  
Mars looks at her fingers as they turn to stone, it is obvious that she is  
in shock, but Ranma has other ideas. They need help, but stops before she  
even moves as Mars curses the princess and holds out her stone covered arm,  
her eyes close and she suddenly bursts into a fire like aura and mumbling  
the Shinto chant used to focus their concentration in meditation. To her  
amazed and relieved eyes, Mars' arm turns back to normal and she sighs in  
relief.  
  
"Your alright!" Moon yells.  
  
"We need to get out of this..." Mars snarls back.  
  
Ranma looked around the area, but couldn't find any sign of Usagi or Rei  
anywhere in sight. She was beginning to worry about them when something  
occurred to her and she took a closer look at the Scouts. At first Ranma was  
amazed when her mind refused to even detail the faces of the girls, but she  
used all her will power to see what she needed to see. The crescent moon  
flared to life on her forehead again and suddenly she could see Usagi and Rei,  
plain as day, dressed up as Sailor Scouts. Ranma nearly fell on her butt in  
shock, she did gape in total confusion though and missed the princess  
transform into her Youma form.  
  
"I'm your dream dolly, do you want to play?" Says the Youma.  
  
Mars brings up her hands to fire off a blast when Moon runs forward and  
pulls off her Tiara. The Youma opens it's doll like mouth and fires out more  
red mist, completely enveloping the two scouts. Ranma gasps as the the  
Scouts take on this slack jawed look for a second, their eyes light up and  
Ranma is relieved that they shook off what ever was affecting them. Then to  
her amusement, the two girl's suddenly grab a couple of brooms from nowhere,  
straddle them and begin to hop around like a couple of little kids riding  
horses.  
  
'Now I can put them completely under my power.' Thinks the Youma as it  
raises it's apple.  
  
Ducking behind a nearby tree, Ranma is about to transform when she spots  
two things that make her hesitate. The first is this total moron in a full  
tuxedo, top hat, and a mask that just ran into the room from somewhere. He  
reaches into his cape and Ranma tenses, but he pulls out a red rose and she  
shakes her head at the stupidity of this idiot. She hated his fashion sence,  
and now she had to save him from his own stupidity. He suddenly threw the  
rose and to Ranma's surprise she could pick up the magical enchantment as it  
was thrown like a hand held throwing spike. The damned thing actually flyies  
out and knocks the apple out of the Youma's hand, it's enough to  
actually impress Ranma for all of half a second. Then the idiot opens his  
mouth and spouts off this drivel to encourage the girls.  
  
"Don't let her get into your dreams Scouts!" Tuxedo Mask yells and runs  
off. For some reason this actually helps the girl's get their focus back and  
they turn to confront the Youma again. Ranma face faults as the illusion  
falls to reveal the Scouts riding the brooms. They both turn red, drop the  
brooms, and jump back in embarrassment.  
  
The second thing Ranma notices is this blue haired girl staggering down the  
hall form the main room where the free food was supposed to be. She stops  
and pulls this pen out of nowhere and holds it up. Ranma's eyes narrow as  
she yells "Mercury Power, Make-Up!" and transforms into Sailor Mercury.  
Ranma didn't know her name, but she had a feeling she would know it soon  
enough. Mercury runs past Ranma's hiding place and the Scouts confront the  
Youma. Ranma witnesses Mercury lay down a fog bank while Mars and Moon  
combine this frisky attack and blow the monster away.  
  
That had been something Ranma hadn't been expecting, the attack must have  
tripled in power when they combined like that, she realized. Then the  
monster turned to dust and castle faded away around them, it must have been  
part of the monsters powers or something. She slipped away in the confusion  
that followed and was surprised to find Usagi, Rei, and a blue haired girl  
all standing off to the side and watching the police go over the now empty  
lot where the castle had been. Ambulances had been called to take care of  
the thirty or so victims of the attack.  
  
"Usagi!" Ranma called.  
  
The girl screamed and jumped five feet in the air, flailed around, and  
landed on Rei. This took the girl down and she tripped Ami and they all went  
down in a pile. Ami's skirt rode up as she was pulled down Ranma got a  
pretty good look at her blue panties when she landed on top of Rei. Ranma  
blinked several times before falling over laughing, the great Sailor Scouts  
were a bunch of untrained, clumsy girls.  
  
"Stop laughing!" Rei yelled.  
  
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Usagi cried.  
  
Ami just blushed and pulled her skirt down as far as it would go.  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
**********  
  
Note - Now were getting somewhere, the next story will be the love cruise  
episode and is going to be nothing like the original and what I'm planning  
to with Titus is just plain evil. Comments on this chapter are wanted, I  
especially want to know if you like the way things are going or not. I want  
feed back on this one, I plan on doing the next episode, but after that it  
is up in the air because I don't know if this should be continued past that.  
So please email me and let me know.... 


	4. Chapter 03 Revised

**********  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 03  
By C. Rose  
(c)2001  
  
**********  
  
The rain is coming down pretty hard by the time the early evening has  
fallen over the Nerima district. The large panda walks tiredly down the  
deserted streets lugging a rather large back pack. The panda is walking on  
it's hind legs, head down, and shivering from the cold rain. It large  
stomach growls as it passes a small yati, it's owner is manning the grill,  
staring wide eyed at the large and dangerous animal that stops and glares at  
him. Then sweat drops as it's mouth opens and starts to drool, he gulps and  
backs away slowly as the panda steals several bowls of spiced ramen. The  
panda pats it's stomach, growls and turns to walk away, but lets off a  
massive fart a few steps later. The yati owner stares at the empty bowls of  
ramen in shock and falls over as the smell hits him.  
  
"Damned thing knew how to use chop sticks."  
  
About ten blocks away and thirty minutes later, the panda stops in front of  
a large wooden gate and pushes his way through. The loud creek of old and  
wet timber echoes over the entire compound and alerts the occupants that  
they have a visitor. Kasumi smiles and gets up to see who is at their door,  
but stops in mid step as a giant panda stalks it's way into the front room  
and looks over the startled family. It whips out a wooden sign with writing  
on it.  
  
*Can I have a glass of hot water, not boiling?*  
  
"Daddy, since when do panda's know how to write?" Asked Nabiki.  
  
Soun, shakes his head in shock as he considers running for his armor and  
family sword. He was expecting his old friend Genma Saotome, not an escaped  
panda from the circus. "I have no idea, I suppose we should call the pound  
or the zoo or some thing."  
  
*Don't call anyone, the hot water will be fine and it will explain all you  
need to know.* The panda signs.  
  
"Here you go Mr. Panda-chan." Kasumi says as she hands the panda a large  
bowl of hot water.  
  
*Thank you, Kasumi.*  
  
"Daddy, it knows my name already!"  
  
The panda pours the hot water over his head and growls in pain as the  
boiling water does it's work. The panda shrinks down and an older man in a  
white gi and a scarf on it's head takes it's place. "Thanks for not  
panicking Soun old buddy." Genma says.  
  
Soun, Kasumi, and Nabiki all faint from shock.  
  
"They took that better than I thought, well while they are indisposed I'll  
just help myself to dinner." Genma sits down and smiles at the one girl  
still conscious. "Do you mind if I have some of this? I haven't eaten in  
days."  
  
Akane shakes her head and faints.  
  
"Good old Soun, always had such a good spread of food on the table. Ah how  
I've missed those days." Genma said for anyone pretending to be unconscious  
before eating every bit of food on the table in about two minutes flat. He  
lets off a titanic belch and pats his stomach as it digests the snack.  
  
"Oh I dreamed Genma stopped by..." Soun mumbled as he sat up and rubbed his  
head.  
  
"I did!" Genma says, looking the table over for more food.  
  
"Genma?! B-b-b-b-but w-what happened t-to you? Where you really just a  
panda?" Soun yells, the girls begin to wake up slowly.  
  
"That was me alright, picked up a nasty curse in China while training the  
boy, I wish I had never taken him there."  
  
"Where is Ranma, we can have the wedding tomorrow if he wants to wait that  
long!" Soun said as he looked around for Genma's son.  
  
"I'm afraid the boy is lost my friend." Genma says sadly.  
  
"WHAT?!!" Soun yells and wakes up the girls.  
  
"Ranma is missing, I know he is somewhere here in Japan, but I have no idea  
where to even start looking."  
  
"Genma, we have to find him at all costs!"  
  
"I know, but he's been missing for several months now."  
  
"Daddy what are you talking about?" Nabiki asks as she sits up, leans  
against the table, and notices that all the food is gone and that there are  
several pieces of rice sticking to the stomach of the man in the white gi.  
She looks at the empty bowls, enough to feed all of them easily, and glares  
at this Genma. He starts to sweat.  
  
"Yes daddy, please tell us what is going on." Kasumi says, glancing at  
Genma and then the table and smiles.  
  
Akane just glares, she hadn't had a chance to dig in yet. "..."  
  
"I figure now is as good a time as any to tell you about the agreement me  
and Genma here made before any of you were born. You see we made a deal that  
we would unite our families and since I had all daughters, Genma here has  
been teaching his son martial arts for over ten years now to prepare him for  
a marriage to one of you."  
  
Kasumi blinks a few times and sighs as she goes into the kitchen.  
  
Nabiki perks up. "Is he cute?!"  
  
Akane snarls. "I Hate Boys!!" and stalks out of the room, up stairs to her  
room and slams the door so hard it shakes the floor boards, some dust falls  
from the ceiling to cover Genma.  
  
"Oh dear." Kasumi says as she comes back out and sets out small bowls of  
food for everybody. Genma inhales his so fast that it is empty by the time  
she takes her hand away and hands a bowl to her father.  
  
"So your saying that we have to get married no matter what, is that it?"  
Nabiki tries again.  
  
"Only if Ranma was to pick you." Genma states, eyeing her food.  
  
"Ranma is to unite our schools of martial arts Nabiki, I was hoping that  
one of you three girls would marry him and continue the schools."  
  
"But father we've never met him and from what your friend here has said,  
Ranma is missing."  
  
"We'll find him one way or another, the schools future depends on it!" Soun  
declared as he stood up and posed nobly. Genma grins and jumps to his feet  
too, the two grown men link arms and spin around in a circle. "We will  
implement operation 'Find the Groom!" They two old men chorused and ran out  
the front door.  
  
"Oh My, father hasn't had that much energy in years!" Kasumi said, handing  
Nabiki a proper bowl of food.  
  
"Kasumi, I'm surprised, you didn't offer this to Genma?"  
  
"He did eat everything else sister."  
  
"I don't like him one bit."  
  
"He seems to be a bit rough around the edges doesn't he?" Kasumi said and  
dug into her own food.  
  
"I HATE BOYS!!" Akane screamed from her room, stomped down the stairs in  
her gi and headed to the dojo.  
  
"That reminds me, has Doc. Tofu gotten over his little problem yet?" Nabiki  
asked with a smirk.  
  
Kasumi sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe one little kiss did that  
to him, I mean it was totally innocent. Wasn't it?"  
  
"Well you did stick your tongue in his mouth Kasumi and he was raised in an  
old fashioned environment and all. He wasn't prepared for a modern type girl  
like you to take the first steps, unless you did something else you didn't  
tell me about?"  
  
Kasumi blushed and started to quickly grab the dishes, there were so many  
to clean tonight.  
  
"Kasumi?"  
  
"..."  
  
"Kasumi?"  
  
She was distracted by her father and Genma-panda running through the back  
yard with the push cart, talking excitedly about the best ways to subdue a  
run away groom. Nabiki rolled her eyes and tried to think of a way to earn  
some money off this, she decided not to press Kasumi for details just yet.  
She got up and headed into the dojo where Akane was obliterating large  
cinder blocks with her fists, or tossing them in the air and shattering them  
with her hands and feet.  
  
"Akane?"  
  
"I can't believe that ass wants us to marry some boy out of the blue, we've  
never met him."  
  
"I don't think it will be that bad Akane, it is a great meal ticket to free  
money and free food for the rest of your life. What's to complain about?"  
  
"You've got to be kidding?!"  
  
"Why should I, he may be major league cute or something and dumb jocks are  
so easy to play with."  
  
"Boys are idiots and perverts!!" Akane yells and crushes a block with her  
foot.  
  
"Suit yourself Akane, but I'm not about to burn my bridges before I have  
all the information."  
  
"The world doesn't revolve around boys Nabiki!"  
  
Nabiki shrugged, this could be perfect, especially with her little problem.  
"Whatever Akane."  
  
In the distance they can all hear Soun yelling Ranma's name at the top of  
his lungs as they search for Ranma. Nabiki rolls her eyes again, she should  
have known better than to think her father would have good idea for once.  
She would put this Ranma's name out on the network in the morning and what  
kind of fish she hooked. This could be fun she thought, throw out a line and  
reel in a husband to use and control for the rest of her life. She smiled  
cruelly, her eyes glinting with evil ideas already.  
  
**********  
  
It was 4am when Ranma rolled out of bed and complained that she missed  
sleeping on her stomach, one of the few things it seemed girl's couldn't do  
because of their breasts. Laying on them actually hurt, which confused her  
since she had endured the Bakusai Tenketsu when Shampoo trained for it.  
Though it wasn't as effective as she would have liked, Cologne had said it  
took time for the near total invulnerability to take effect and that meant  
practicing it for hours on end. Something she hadn't had time to do since  
arriving in Juban a few days ago, she was hoping to stumble across a quarry.  
She had found that those were the best places to practice and earn a little  
money too.  
  
Of course she had been helping to fight off the creatures being sent by  
that blonde moron Jed-something or another. Blondie fit him better, the  
arrogant jerk, she had proven to be his match before she became one of the  
Scouts. Luckily it seemed they didn't need her help all the time, the fight  
with that princess thing over at the amusement park had proven that they  
were not totally useless. Only that they needed help in other areas, like  
how to actually fight or walk or even breath for that matter. They were  
depending on their magical powers completely, how did they think to win if  
they came up against something that could neutralize that power? Of the  
three girls, she figured Rei, was the most trainable and the easiest to  
reach, the next was the blue haired girl since she seemed to possess a keen  
mind and thought of defense before the rest of the team even attacked.  
  
Lastly was Usagi, Sailor Moon, the cry baby and scared little girl. Ranma  
was worried about her the most. The other two were very mature for being so  
young, but Usagi was totally off the wall for a fourteen year old girl. At  
sixteen Ranma had endured more in her life than most do in a life time and  
her life was bound to get worse and worse as time went on due to the magic  
of Jusenkyo. In the past few months she had been forced to do a lot of soul  
searching and it had brought out a number of things she hadn't liked.  
Cologne had helped her to grow into a somewhat normal girl, but her male  
attitude was something that was etched right into her soul and she couldn't  
become a true girl if she even wanted to. The old bat disagreed, but the  
price to do so was so repulsive that Ranma couldn't even think about it.  
Then there had been that little biology lesson during that first month,  
Ranma shuddered. Definitely to much to pay.  
  
She trudged over to her closet and put on her workout clothes, spandex  
shorts, a sports bra, and a tight t-shirt. How something so female could  
make her feel so comfortable was amazing, she had borrowed a similar out fit  
from one of her friends at the Amazon Village and spent several hours of  
hard practice marveling at the sturdy construction of the strange material.  
Ito, a talking cat of all things, was sprawled out on the floor by the  
window and almost reminded Ranma of her father after a drunken binge at the  
local bar. She decided not to wake up the newest oddity in her life and made  
her way out of the room. Ranma yawned as she stepped out into the back area  
of the shrine and headed into the woods around the place. The temple was at  
the top of a large hill in the center of the district, this in turn bordered  
a large park used by all the local fitness obsessed. Ranma had found it the  
day before when Rei took them home through the park instead of up the  
stairs, the girl's had been to tired to climb all those steps so instead  
chose to make her way up the slow incline to the park instead at three times  
the distance to reach the shrine.  
  
Ranma reached the main trail of the park, it was a little over eight miles  
long around the entire thing according to Rei. She fell into her special way  
of breathing and was soon sprinting along at an incredible pace, passing  
dozens of runners along the way. Several men saw her, started to drool, and  
tried to keep up with her, but they quickly lost interest when she kept up  
the brutal pace she had set. Even more face faulted when she lapped them a  
half hour later and moving at the same brutal pace, she grinned as some of  
them groaned. On her third lap of the park she focused and sent her Ki into  
her legs and was soon moving faster than an Olympic sprinter and ran the  
eight miles in an impossible twenty minutes flat! After cooling down for  
several minutes she searched around and soon found a secluded spot between  
the shrine and the park and started to go through her newest kata, still  
pushing her body to it's fullest.  
  
The small black cat that was watching from the bushes was frozen in awe as  
she saw the impossible done like it meant nothing. Thirty foot jumps, while  
untransformed, and a hang time of several second while kicking and punching  
at speeds beyond anything she had ever seen. Luna would have sworn that she  
was possessed by a youma or something if she hadn't witnessed this girl  
punch Jedite so hard that he collapsed to his knees. The pain in his face  
had been to real to be faked and he had tried a couple of more times to get  
revenge, but this Ranma was proving to be stronger than him. Then there was  
her senses, they were picking up nothing but Silver Millennium energy from  
the girl, tons of it. Luna continued to watch as Ranma went through a dozen  
or more very complicated kata in midair before landing on one foot with more  
grace than an Olympic gymnast.  
  
Focusing inward, Ranma called forth her aura and focused her Ki. It burst  
forth easily, much easier than it ever had. Her aura was now a pure white  
with yellow and blue flecks of energy flowing around like small lightning  
bolts. What startled her was the sheer amount of power she was feeling and  
realized that her magic had mixed into her Ki energies and amplified them.  
"Oh great, like I wasn't strong enough before, now it's at least five times  
stronger than what it was a few days ago. I hadn't even had time to master  
my old strength and now I have to put up with more?" Ranma muttered to  
herself.  
  
For the next half hour Ranma ran through her control exercises,  
creating balls of energy and holding them in place with her mind alone,  
moving them around slowly in certain patterns, and forcing them to reshape  
themselves into different shapes like squares and triangles. She failed of  
course, but got a lot closer than she had the last time she tied that super  
hard training. The old woman's demonstration had looked so damned simple,  
but to actually do it was a strain she hadn't considered before. She had  
nearly pushed herself into unconsciousness before she had collapsed from  
stress of manipulating pure energy with her mind alone, it was a challenge  
so she was still trying to get it even after all these months. Ranma stopped  
and knelt down, sweat dripping off her like water, she gasped for air as her  
body slowly returned to normal and she reigned in her Ki and suppressed it  
for safety sake.  
  
It was pushing 7am when Ranma decided to head inside and take a bath, she  
used her towel to wipe the sweat of her face and waved to Rei as she was  
sweeping the front walk way. The girl glared at her and snapped the top of  
her broom off, then stared at it in shock. Ranma just smirked as she entered  
the bathroom and got ready for the day, her workout had been pretty intense  
this morning and her muscles were actually sore. She was just relaxing in  
the furo when Ito sauntered in and glared at her.  
  
"What?" Ranma muttered.  
  
"Why didn't you wake me up?"  
  
"You just looked so restful sprawled out on the floor like that."  
  
"I'm supposed to be your adviser, how can I do that if you ditch me?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Okay cat, advise me."  
  
"We need to get you trained in your new powers so that you can help out the  
other Scouts."  
  
"Do you know who they are?"  
  
"No, but there is supposed to be another farie cat around here somewhere  
who can get me caught up."  
  
"Then your in luck Ito, for I found you." Said a female voice.  
  
Ranma and Ito turn to look at a black cat walk into the furo and sit down.  
It was a normal sized house cat, black with a crescent moon on it's  
forehead. "Who are you?" Ito asked.  
  
"Luna."  
  
"The only Luna I know died centuries ago." Ito snapped.  
  
"I was put into suspended animation for this job, Queen Serenity made sure  
I would survive to do it."  
  
"Suspended animation? Isn't that dangerous for us to do, I seem to remember  
something about the process having some kind of effect on our minds."  
  
Luna sighs. "My memory is total Swiss cheese, I only remember bits and  
pieces."  
  
Ranma stares at yet another talking cat and knows that it isn't telling the  
whole truth, how, she had no idea. Her new senses were telling her things  
that were hard to process, she had been trying to deal with the increased  
range of her senses ever since the change had taken place. One of them was  
this ability to 'see' magical auras, and Luna's was very different than  
Ito's aura. "Luna, both of you are farie cats right?"  
  
"Yes we are."  
  
"Then why is you aura so much different than Ito's aura?"  
  
"What do you mean by different Ranma?" Ito said, looking at Luna and  
narrowing her eyes.  
  
"Ito your aura is a yellowish red and seems to be normal for what I  
understand of them, but Luna's is almost gray and streaked with dozens of  
different color."  
  
"Can you still transform Luna?" Ito asked.  
  
"Transform?" Ranma and Luna asked.  
  
"You don't remember how to transform Luna, that is surprising, but your  
aura seems to have been altered to keep you from doing it."  
  
"I don't know what your talking about."  
  
Ito shrugged her shoulders and shifted, her body shifted and grew in a  
matter of seconds into a good looking red head girl. She had a simple white  
dress on, Ranma had no idea where it came from, and smirked down at Luna.  
The silver crescent moon on their heads glowed and some thing seemed to pass  
between them as they glowed. Ranma sat there in the furo and watched in  
fascination as Luna suddenly glowed, a piece of her aura flared and  
shattered, and Luna shifted into her human form.  
  
Where Ito was good looking, Luna was stunning, she was barely over five  
foot and had thick black curls of hair that ran down her back. She had a  
form fitting yellow dress with petty coats and a fantastic body. Ranma  
wondered why it was suddenly so warm in the bathroom, but shook it off. Luna  
stumbled around a little and leaned against the wall for support. Ranma  
noticed suddenly that both girl's were growing more good looking by the  
second, to ignore it she finished soaking and grabbed her towel to dry off.  
  
Rei chose that exact time to step into the bathroom to let Ranma know that  
breakfast was ready, so she got a good look at Ranma's fantastic nude body  
as she was drying off and two other girls watching with interest. She  
blinked and growled as she stalked over to Ranma, grabbed her by the arm and  
twisted. "YOU PERVERT, I WILL NOT LET YOU GET AWAY WITH DOING PERVERTED  
THINGS IN MY BATHROOM!!" Rei screamed.  
  
Luna and Ito blinked in confusion.  
  
"Huh?" Ranma got out.  
  
"I DON'T WANT YOUR SICK PERVERTED WAYS IN MY HOME!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked as she stood up and unconsciously  
broke Rei's grip on her arm. "These are friends Rei, they were just here  
to..."  
  
"You pervert!" Rei slapped her.  
  
"What's going on?" Rei's grandfather yelled from the bathroom door, luckily  
it was closed.  
  
"Rei's throwing a hissy fit Gramps." Ranma called, sticking her tongue out  
at Rei.  
  
She pales and backs up a few steps. "I am not!"  
  
"You two stop playing around, you need to get to school okay?"  
  
"Sure Gramps!" Ranma called out. She stepped closer to Rei and looked her  
in the eyes and grinned. "I think I finally figured out what you were  
thinking Rei, I wasn't sure at first, but now I am."  
  
"W-what?" Rei squeaked.  
  
Luna and Ito just watched in fascination as Ranma leaned in close and  
rubbed herself up against Rei and smiled, purring a little. Rei blushed and  
backed up against the wall, trying to stay away from Ranma. "I know the  
truth now Rei, you can't hide it from me anymore."  
  
"I-I don't know what your t-talking about!"  
  
Ranma dropped her towel to the floor and Rei blushed even harder if it was  
possible. "I know your interested in me Rei." She whispered, leaning in for  
a kiss, sparkles in her eyes. "But I'm not really interested right now,  
maybe in a few months I'll change my mind cute stuff." Ranma says suddenly  
and steps back and shrugs, grinning in a knowing way.  
  
Ito and Luna face fault.  
  
"WHAT?!!" Rei yells out and punched Ranma with all her might to send her  
flying back into the furo with a giant splash. Then stomped out of the room,  
slamming the door behind her. Bubbles come to the surface where Ranma's face  
was plastered to the bottom of the furo, her legs hanging off the side in a  
decidedly inappropriate manor.  
  
**********  
  
Breakfast was a quiet affair for Ranma a she breezed through her cereal and  
eggs. Rei glared at her and spent all her time keeping the table between her  
and Ranma. Ranma smiled at her and went out of her way to make suggestive  
motions as she ate and had Rei blushing a solid red by the time she  
finished. She started with hers cereal and lapped the milk out of the bowl  
like a cat and smiled at Rie, licking her lips and letting a little drip off  
her chin. From there she moved on to more and more suggestive things until  
Rei grabbed her stuff and fled the temple as soon as she could. She was  
still blushing as she ran down the stairs and wondering why visions of a  
naked Ranma were still in her mind, the feel of her breasts as she rubbed up  
against her, and the smell of her hair...Rei had to stop at the bottom of  
the stairs and bang her head against the wall for awhile to clear it.  
  
"Mommy, why is she doing that?"  
  
Rei twitched while still resting her head against the slightly cracked  
wall.  
  
"Don't look at the crazy girl, honey." Said a mother as they edged around  
Rei. "You don't want to end up like her, do you?"  
  
"Hey!" Rei yelled.  
  
They ran for it.  
  
Ranma snickered from the steps as she waved at the seething Rei and jumped  
to a nearby roof and took off. Rei screamed and ran after her, but Ranma  
soon lost her and enjoyed the morning run. Running in a skirt was a pain,  
but she always wore a pair of shorts under the skirts to keep the boys from  
peaking. She dropped out of the sky and landed beside one of the boys who  
were always scooping out the girl's as they entered the grounds, he screamed  
and turned to run, but ran right into a wall knocking himself cold. This was  
only her fourth day at Jubaan High and she was surprised to see that she had  
already acquired a reputation for not tolerating the boys trying to make the  
move on her. She had even had to go so far as to beat one unconscious when  
he lifted up her dress unexpectedly, the fact that he did it on a dare meant  
nothing.  
  
Then there was the fact that a lot of the girl's were beginning to look up  
to her as some kind of role model was a little disturbing, but Usagi, whom  
Ranma had made friends with, said to let them have their fun and it could  
only help them. For a total ditz it had actually made sense, and her other  
friend Ami (the blue haired girl from the castle) had said Usagi had these  
rare moments of wisdom. Ranma just figured the girl was being sneaky.  
  
Speaking of the blonde, Ranma watched from the classroom window as the  
warning bell rang and was in the perfect position to see Usagi sped through  
the front gates just as they were closing. A trail of dust followed behind  
her as she hit the front door and made her way up stairs. Ranma followed  
Usagi's way through the school with her ears as she ran into a couple of  
janitors since the sound of falling water buckets and the sounds of the  
janitors cussing in Chinese was easily heard, Ranma saw Ami blush. Then  
Usagi fell on the freshly waxed floor, and plowed through the door to the  
class room and slid into the desks at the front of the room in an explosion  
of chaos. It was one of Usagi's better entrances, this time she managed to  
take four other girls with her when she stopped. There was enough flesh and  
panties showing in the pile that half the guys in class had to grab their  
noses to stop the blood flow, the other half passed out. Well there was that  
one guy in the back of the class, but a Japanese student with a lisp was  
terrible thing to see.  
  
"Usagi!" Mrs. Haruna yelled as she entered the classroom.  
  
"Sorry Mrs. Haruna?" Usagi mumbled from the bottom of the pile of stunned  
girls.  
  
"Detention!"  
  
Usagi just groaned and dug herself out of the pile of desks and limbs and  
trudged her way back to her seat. She smiled weakly at Ranma, who was trying  
not to laugh at her friend. She got up and helped the girls Usagi hit as  
they extracted themselves out of the pile. Ranma ended up helping one of  
them to the nurses office as well. Usagi ended up tagging along with them  
apologizing a mile a minute, though by the time they reached the office  
Usagi had a new and they were all laughing. If Usagi was anything, she was a  
total klutz, and her tripping over the janitors a second time on the way  
down was just to much. They all got another ear full of Chinese cussing  
again, though this time it was in exasperation.  
  
When they arrived at the nurses office, Ranma was a bit surprised when the  
nurse actually knew Usagi on sight. She gave them all suckers for some  
reason, wrapped the injured girl's foot and pushed them all out of the room  
for those that actually needed it. The rest of the day was pretty quiet,  
then lunch hit and the mood of the school changed, the excited squealing of  
a large pack of girls turned the lunch room into a spectacle. While getting  
ready to head down to see what was going on, Umino the class geek and  
resident spy cornered her before she could leave the class room. Ranma  
briefly considered pounding him, but decided to see what he wanted, it  
usually was something of interest. "Ranma."  
  
"What's up Umino?"  
  
"There is a girl at a high school looking for information on you."  
  
"Oh? Which school would that be?"  
  
"Furinkan High in the Nerima district."  
  
"Why are you telling me this, you usually keep to yourself."  
  
"She was asking weird questions about a male Ranma Saotome, is he your  
brother or something? Ranma isn't all that of a common name you now, ever  
heard of him?"  
  
Ranma paled. "A male Ranma? G-got me on that one, I'm an only child as far  
as I know."  
  
Umino leaned in close and hmmm'ed in a geeky way, giving her a weird look.  
"Are you sure your an only child, she's offering a reward for information on  
this male Ranma."  
  
"Why would she be doing that?"  
  
"The information is important in some way, it's the way these things are  
done."  
  
"Well I have no idea what's going on." Ranma said, starting to sweat.  
  
"I'll let her know. Thanks." Umino said and vanished as quickly as he had  
appeared.  
  
Ranma sighed and dashed out of the room, her curiosity getting the better  
of her, the thing in the lunch room and Umino taking up much of her mind.  
She shrugged, it wasn't like she hadn't expected someone to start looking  
for her eventually. Though she had thought it would be her mother, not some  
stranger in a school she had never heard of before. She decided to look into  
it later, right now she had squealing girls to deal with. As she approached  
the lunch room she saw that a number of boys clustered around the doors and  
watching. She tapped on the shoulder.  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"You don't know?"  
  
"I'm out of the loop still."  
  
"Right, there holding a contest to give out two tickets to this cruise that  
is leaving port in a week or so. All the girls are in there trying to win  
the tickets."  
  
"A cruise...that means the ocean, a great place to train in some of my more  
exotic techniques like the Shark Fist and some others, if not that then  
there would always be a pool..." Ranma rambled out.  
  
The boys all sweat dropped and backed away as Ranma ran into the room and  
hopped in line. Ten minutes later Ranma grinned and held up two tickets to  
the cruise excitedly, forty other girl's were glaring daggers of death at  
her. Usagi and Molly were disappointed, but congratulated Ranma on her win  
and trudged away looking depressed. Ranma was lost in her dreams of fighting  
under water battles against monsters and water demons, when she felt some  
eyes on her and looked around. She spotted Ito and Luna sitting on the  
window sill to the lunch room, glaring at her in some irritating way. The  
rest of the girls in the room saw Ranma look at something and smirk, they  
turned and sighed.  
  
"Their so kawaii!!" Forty girl's yelled and rushed over to look at the  
cats.  
  
"I've never seen a red cat that cute before!"  
  
"Look at those crescent birth marks, they must be related!"  
  
"There so cute!"  
  
Ranma took the opportunity to leave the lunch room just as the bell rang,  
she was back in class a few minutes later looking at her prize. She froze  
and blushed as she realized what had happened, the words LOVE CRUISE FOR TWO  
were easily read across both tickets, leave it to a bunch of girls to get  
her hopes up over something stupid. Oh well, she could give the tickets away  
or use one and bring along a friend...wait she didn't have all that many  
friends and they were all a little strange. She's have to think about...oh  
yeah, that girl that was looking for information on a male Ranma Saotome.  
She would have to look into that and see what was going on.  
  
**********  
  
After school Ranma met Ito and Luna in the park to see what they had  
wanted. The instant Ranma spotted them she started to giggle and was clawed  
into silence by Luna. The both of them looked like they had just gotten  
mugged by a pack of crazed girls with a bow fetish obsession. There are bows  
along their tails, on their feet, around their necks, stomachs, even between  
their ears. Both cats were pissed and putting out visible battle auras as  
they paced back and forth like caged tigers, muttering under their breath  
about girls and bows and revenge.  
  
"Not one WORD Ranma!" Ito snarled.  
  
"Those girl's were crazed out of their minds!" Luna whined.  
  
Ranma kept her giggles down to a minimum as she took the bows off the two  
cats. She did have to resist an urge to run thought, but found that it was  
in fact quite easy to do. Weird. Still she was careful, she didn't either  
cat attacking her for saying something stupid. "What did you two want  
anyway."  
  
"We just wanted you to know that we are at your service from now on, you  
are the Princess."  
  
"Not that crap again!" Ranma snapped.  
  
"But you are the Princess, the crescent moon on your head is all the proof  
I need." Luna said.  
  
"Wake up Luna, I couldn't be a princess if I wanted to be, which I don't by  
the way, so just back off."  
  
"No, we need to find your transformation broach so you can become a scout."  
  
"What's that?" Ranma asked.  
  
"It's a device that allows you to use your magic to fight with, give you a  
Scout uniform, and a disguise field so no one can recognized you when you  
fight."  
  
"Hey, isn't that..." Ito stated.  
  
"Luna, you guys don't talk to each other to much do you?" Ranma said.  
  
Ito nodded and smirked, looking over at Luna. "Lady Pluto already gave  
Ranma her powers, she's already a Scout."  
  
"WHAT?!!!" Luna screamed and fell over. "Pluto hasn't been seen in  
centuries Ito, she is dead or something worse."  
  
"Pluto is still around, she just has to follow different rules than us. You  
should remember that."  
  
"Ranma show me, I want to see you transform into your Scout form. What  
planet do you represent anyway?"  
  
Ranma sighed and held up her arms to show off her golden arm bracers, and  
Luna wondered why she hadn't noticed them before. "Pluto originally gave me  
a pen of some kind, it was kind of dumb looking though. Then when I touched  
it the thing turned to light and turned into these bracers, there is some  
kind of spell on them that makes others ignore them in some way. Pluto said  
I represented the Sun, Sailor Flash or something like that."  
  
"Sailor Sol, Ranma, Sailor Sol." Ito muttered.  
  
"Um...right, like I'm going to call myself something gay like that. I'll  
come up with something better later."  
  
"You can't just change your Sailor name Ranma, Its...its..."  
  
"Gay sounding is what it is, at least the suit is a minor improvement over  
the other's suits. Though not by much."  
  
"I want to see it!" Luna yelled.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Please?" Ito asked, slightly curious herself.  
  
Ranma sighed and headed deeper into the trees nearby to get some privacy,  
when she was deep enough that she couldn't see anyone, she held up the  
bracers and shouted. "SOL CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!!" There was a bright flash  
of light, the cats later swore they head a loud moan of pleasure, and Sailor  
Sol stood there in her all her glory looking great and slightly flushed. She  
had a green breast bow and white back bow that had a pair of ribbons  
trailing to the floor, the wave of power wafting off Sol was almost enough  
to blow the cats off there feet.  
  
"Incredible!!" Luna yelled.  
  
"That's awesome Sailor Sol!" Ito yelled out.  
  
"Don't call me that!" Ranma snapped out and formed a bladed staff made of  
KI and Magic and leveled it at the cats. "I will be taking another name, got  
that?"  
  
"Whatever you want Princess." The cats chorused and sweat dropped.  
  
"Exactly, now what did you two want to talk about before we got  
sidetracked."  
  
"Two things, we want you to train with your new powers and to meet with the  
other Scouts. Ito here tells me your already a powerful martial artist and  
from what I've seen I believe her. We would also like to discus the  
possibility of you training the Scouts to be better fighters, their so green  
it's pathetic."  
  
"I saw them fight that robotic princess the other day Luna, your right,  
their pathetic, but good enough to be dangerous to others. I'll look into  
it."  
  
"Well you meet with them?"  
  
"I haven't met them formally Luna, but I already know who Moon, Mars, and  
Mercury are."  
  
"What? How can that be, they've been so careful to keep it a secret."  
  
Ranma smirked. "I witnessed Ami transform, the rest was easy to figure out,  
after all they are always hanging out together."  
  
Luna moaned.  
  
"Don't worry about it, I don't think anyone else noticed what I did."  
  
"Well, I'm still going to have a little talk with those girls and get them  
to be more careful." Luna muttered.  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Whatever." She did think it was a good time to get some  
practice though, but in the middle of the park was a bad idea. She had a  
funny feeling, and Pluto telling her so, that she could level entire blocks  
if she wanted to. That kind of power was very dangerous, oh yes, she was  
going to need to do some training. "Hey Luna, you are right that I need  
training with this power. Where do the others go to train and fire off  
random blasts of destruction?"  
  
Luna sweat dropped.  
  
**********  
  
Hey everyone I need ideas on Ranma's new Scout name, send me some ideas.  
Please ^^ 


	5. Chapter 04 Revised

﻿  
Notes - This is the second version of this chapter, if anyone has the  
original floating around, please burn it and replace it. I posted Princess  
04 and Replacement 05 to soon and ended up posting a couple of chapters I  
started to hate. So I rewrote both chapters. I hope this version is a lot  
better than that crap I sent out earlier, the more I looked at them the  
more I wanted to do something different with them or correct them.  
  
On this fic I have received a number of complaints that told me that I have  
some dates, names, and times wrong. I have corrected these and will be  
reposting the newer chapters along with this one. Most of the changes are  
minor word rearrangements and such or a paragraph here and there, but they  
should fix a number of things that people have been telling me about. ^^  
  
**********  
  
Princess of the Moon  
  
Chapter 04  
  
By C. Rose  
  
(c)2001  
  
**********  
  
"What are you doing here Rei?" Usagi gripes.  
  
She had seen this add on TV for this contest to give away two tickets to  
the Love Cruise and since she had lost out to Ranma several days ago and  
she was going to get these, then she could ask Andrew to come with her. She  
hopped in line and waited for several minutes, but eventually made it to  
the counter and saw a large bowl full of red beads. The sign said there was  
a gold bead in there somewhere, but she didn't see it. She grabbed the  
handle that spun the bowl and groaned as a red bead popped out. Then she  
turned to walk away when she spotted Rei watching her, a strange look on  
her face.  
  
"What's it to you Meatball Head." She had heard Mamoru call Usagi that at  
the carnival and liked the sound of it instantly. "I want those tickets!"  
  
"But you don't even have a boyfriend!"  
  
They argue back and forth for several minutes, but Rei eventually gets  
bored and hops in line as she sticks her tongue out at Usagi. Several  
minutes later she makes it to the counter and she smiles shyly as she  
concentrates and spins the handle...and out pops the gold bead. She jumps  
for joy. "Alright!"  
  
"WE HAVE A WINNER!!"  
  
"She used that strange power of hers to cheat." Usagi mutters, mad that her  
friend would cheat in that way. Still, she had to take someone, and they  
were friends. "Rei who are you going to take, Grandpa?"  
  
"You aren't touching these tickets Usagi." Rei says in a huff.  
  
"But Rei?! The Scouts should stick together..."  
  
Rei growls and spots Ami heading their way and smiles. "Your right Usagi,  
we should. Ami!"  
  
"Huh?" Usagi gets out just as Rei runs off.  
  
"Ami come here, I've got good news!" Rei yells.  
  
"What is Rei?" Ami starts, but Rei grabs her and drags her off to a nearby  
cafe. They grab a table and Rei explains about the tickets. Usagi sneaks up  
to the bushes outside the window where they are sitting and listens in as  
best she can.  
  
"Aren't you going to invite Usagi? She really wants to go on that cruise."  
Ami says.  
  
"No, she's been acting like a real brat lately." Rei snaps.  
  
"But...I would feel guilty if I went and she didn't."  
  
"Don't worry about it, we can pick her up a nice...souvenir or something,  
like a hat." Rei says.  
  
"Okay, I'll go." Ami says, the cruise did sound like a good idea and a lot  
of fun. Rei and Ami run off making plans, the cruise left in a few days and  
it didn't leave them much time to get ready. Usagi hears this and starts to  
get really mad, she got up and hid before they could see her face as she  
tried to control her anger. She backed into an alley to figure out why her  
friends were doing this to her, it just didn't make sense that both of them  
would be out to hurt her.  
  
"Usagi!" Luna yelled as she ran up.  
  
"Hi Luna." Usagi said, sounding mad and depressed.  
  
"Usagi, I managed to get in contact with the princess."  
  
"That's nice Luna."  
  
"Usagi, didn't you hear what I just said!" Luna yelled.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever Luna." Usagi muttered, her mind on other things. She  
looked up as Luna's words finally registered, to bad she hadn't been paying  
attention. Ranma's red haired visage was less than an inch from hers and  
smiling like she was thinking dirty thoughts. Usagi screamed and jumped  
five feet in the air and landed with a crash, her ass in the air and her  
skirt flared just so.  
  
Ranma just blinked and wondered what it was with this girl and showing off  
her panties like that, heck, all girls for that matter. She did have a nice  
round, firm, ass though, Ranma had to admit and being a girl full time gave  
her ample time to see these things. She grinned down at Usagi and helped  
her to her feet, the girl was blushing so red that heat was wafting off of  
her. "Hi Usagi, I met your cat."  
  
"L-Luna?"  
  
"Yep, talks a mile a minute too, couldn't get her to shut up for  
anything..." Ranma yelped as said cat took a swipe at her ankle with claws  
extended. She edged away and giggled nervously, reminding herself not to  
tease the talking cats.  
  
"Ranma!" Chorused Luna and Ito.  
  
Usagi noticed the red cat at Ranma's feet and gasped. "Ohhhh, Luna is she  
like you?"  
  
"Yes Usagi, this is Ito, Ranma's adviser."  
  
"Hello Ito!" Usagi yelled and kneeled down to pet her. Ito may have been a  
farie cat, arrogant, and intelligent, but she was also a shameless cat and  
loved to be petted. She rumbled into a loud purr and rubbed herself up  
against Usagi, smirking at Luna.  
  
"What's wrong Usagi, you looked a little peeved a little while ago and that  
isn't an emotion that you use much." Ranma asked.  
  
"Ami and Rei are going on that Love Cruise, without me."  
  
"What's so important about that Cruise?"  
  
"We do have some things to talk about you two." Luna interrupted, but Ranma  
and Usagi just ignored her.  
  
"You won those tickets at school, now you can take any boy you want with  
you. I wanted that...is something wrong?" Usagi asked, Ranma had gone a  
little pale when she mentioned boys.  
  
"Um...heheheh...no...nothings wrong, I've just had a few bad experiences  
with boys in the past...yeah." Ranma lied, badly.  
  
Ito rolled her eyes and wondered if Ranma would ever accept her new form,  
sure it had only been a few months, but being female was better than  
anything else, wasn't it?  
  
"Oh you poor thing." Usagi's heart melted as she wrapped Ranma in a hug.  
"Don't let the past hurt you like that, things will get better." Why had  
Ranma tensed up like this?  
  
"I-it's nothing to w-worry about Usagi." Ranma tried, trying to stop the  
strange feelings she was getting. Ito and Luna just giggled at her. "Do you  
want to go on that cruise that badly?"  
  
Usagi stepped back and gave Ranma a look that said they would talk later,  
then nodded. "I wanted to take Andrew from the arcade or even one of my  
friends if he wasn't available, like Naru."  
  
"W-well you can have one of mine if you want it, Usagi."  
  
"Hey, you two...we.......have....." Luna tied again, getting madder by the  
minute.  
  
"What, but those are for you and your boyfriend?"  
  
"Like I want anything to do with a boyfriend Usagi, your my friend, here  
you can have one of mine. I hadn't really planned on going, but if you do  
I'll go to." Ranma said and choked up again as Usagi squealed and hugged  
her again. She blushed when she realized that Usagi was really pressing up  
against her.  
  
"ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou!!" Usagi  
screamed as she jumped up and down, still hugging Ranma.  
  
"Your welcome Usagi." Ranma said as she blushed.  
  
"But you will have to do me one little favor." Usagi said suddenly.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
Usagi rubbed the back of her head and laughed nervously, blushing a little.  
"Your going to have to help me get up early so that we get to the ship as  
soon as possible."  
  
Luna sighed and gave up, nodding her head and giving Ito a cat shrug. "She  
is totally hopeless in that area."  
  
"What's so hard about that?"  
  
"Um...heheheh...it's really hard to wake me up, it's why I'm late for  
school every morning."  
  
"Okay Usagi, I think I can do that." Ranma said with a smirk, she'd used to  
have the same problem a couple years ago, but his father had found a way to  
cure him of his laziness. She grinned and sized up Usagi's potential and  
was surprised to find that she had tons, all of it wild and unfocused.  
  
Usagi hugged her, again, and squealed in delight. This was possibly the  
weirdest girl Ranma had ever encountered. She kept her grin firmly in place  
and tired to think of a way to get her to calm down. Usagi was now bouncing  
around like her namesake, a rabbit, and had bits of her anatomy that were  
moving in ways that made Ranma feel funny. Whatever it was Ranma liked the  
way it felt, completely missing the fact that her nipples had just hardened  
noticeably. Looking for a way out of this mess, Ranma decided that it would  
be a good idea to grab something to eat.  
  
Her stomach growled, loudly, and caused Usagi to stop her bouncing around  
and to make her laugh. Ranma just blushed and giggled along with her.  
"Would you like to go and grab something to eat Usagi?"  
  
"Sure, the arcade is nearby, we can eat there and discus what we want to do  
while on the Cruise."  
  
"That sounds like a lot of fun and a good idea."  
  
They ran off, Usagi absentmindedly dragging Ranma along by her hand.  
Ranma's hand was tingling and she didn't understand why, she was also  
feeling a little warm all of a sudden. These thought and other more Hentai  
thoughts flashed through her mind, so she can be excused for forgetting  
about the two cats that had been watching the whole conversation with  
interest. Up to and including Ranma's odd reactions to Usagi's open nature.  
  
"From the looks of that, I would say the Ranma's Princess instincts are  
still working about normal." Luna said.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Hmmm...oh...back in the Silver Millennium most of the princesses were what  
are called Bisexual now a days."  
  
"Oh, um...Luna, Ranma has absolutely no interest in men. I'd be willing to  
bet my life on it, she is girls only."  
  
"Why do you say that?" Asked a surprised Luna.  
  
"Just a hunch." Ito said, trying not to smirk.  
  
**********  
  
It was the next day and Ranma was running across the roof's of houses for  
the mile run from the temple to Usagi's house, she easily jumped across  
intersections and ran over the street lights as if out for a daily jog or  
something. Most of the drivers that saw this could only gape and run into  
the car in front of them. Why? Well Ranma has no sense of modesty and was  
running in her school uniform, a skirt and blouse combo, that meant  
panties, that meant the men in the cars were looking up her dress as she  
sailed past. Distracting them enough that they ran into the car in front of  
them, needless to say that by the time Ranma arrived at Usagi's house she  
had caused the fifth largest traffic jam in the Jubaan district that year.  
Emergency workers were not sure what to do with the thirty or so perverts  
that were wandering around mumbling about white silk panties. Ranma figured  
if she had to wear them, the school frowned upon her wearing her gym shorts  
under her skirt, she would wear the best and most comfortable and that  
meant silk and satin panties, all black, red, or white. She had just  
stopped by the school to let them know that she and Usagi would be out of  
classes for the next two days while they were on the Cruise, they insisted  
that they be in uniform anytime they were on school grounds. It was weird  
rule, but Ranma had been wearing skirts off and on for weeks now. She had  
found that instead of being freaked out by them or developing a loathing to  
them she had grown uncaring. It was a dress, big deal, she had more  
important things to worry about, like breakfast, which she had skipped to  
get to the school on time.  
  
She launched off the wall outside Usagi's house and landed in the front  
yard by the door, her skirt flaring up to show off her perfectly toned  
legs. Kenji, just walking out of the house gets an eye full and falls into  
a drooling faint. Ranma ignores him as she steps around another pervert and  
knocks on the door, her thought were still on what happened during her run,  
she couldn't figure out what the fuss was for, she was just out running and  
having a little fun so there was no reason for all those guys to crash  
their cars. Usagi's mother opens the door and smiles at Ranma.  
  
"Hello Ranma, Usagi said you would be by today to help her get up and ready  
for that cruise she has a ticket for."  
  
"Yeah, she wanted to go really bad and I had this extra ticket..."  
  
"You gave her that ticket, she never mentioned that, just that she was  
desperate to go on that silly thing."  
  
"I agree with you on the silly part, but Rei and Ami are going as well and  
Usagi wants to be with them." Ranma bit down on her tongue to keep from  
mentioning that Usagi might be looking for revenge against Rei, but that  
was Usagi's business.  
  
"Their going too? Do you know who they are taking as dates?"  
  
"Sorry Mrs. Tsukino, I have no idea."  
  
"Oh well, head up to her room and see if you can rouse the dead. She could  
sleep through a nuclear blast and only complain about turning the radio  
down."  
  
"She's that bad?"  
  
"Oh yes, probably much worse than what you have heard."  
  
"You know that sounds like something I went through a couple years ago  
myself, but I got over it."  
  
"Do you know what happened to make you that way?"  
  
"Oh sure, I thought I was coming down with some kind of sleeping sickness  
so I went to see a doctor about it." Ranma started, deciding she didn't  
need to know about the fight she'd had with her father, the chase across  
every roof in the city they had been at the time, the cops, the explosions  
and falling into a warehouse full of kidnappers holding a number of doctors  
for ransom from a local hospital. "The Doc I talked to said it sounded like  
an adolescent growth spurt, the body burned ten times more energy, balance  
was screw...eh hehe...messed up, and I had to eat more food in a day than  
even my father and he can pack it away like you wouldn't believe."  
  
"A growth spurt? That may be why Usagi is so clumsy too, what a fascinating  
idea and one I never considered before. How did your father ever manage to  
wake you up if you were always falling asleep?"  
  
Ranma had a quick flash of Genma tossing 'him' off the roof of a four story  
building, jumping after him with fists and feet flying. "We usually sparred  
in the mornings, he kind of trained it out of me over a period of months."  
  
"That won't work for Usagi I'm afraid."  
  
"Nope, I wasn't even considering it, instead I was thinking of pop's other  
method."  
  
"Other method?"  
  
Ranma grinned and pulled a bucket of water from nowhere, sloshing a little  
on the ground. "Alternative method."  
  
Mrs. Tsukino giggled and pointed up the stairs. "First door on the right."  
She turned to shut the door and spotted her husband out cold on the lawn,  
he was drooling like he had the first time she showed him her underwear.  
She glowered and stalked out to give him a little lesson...  
  
Ranma breezed forward like the panther on the prowl, grinning like an  
idiot, and made her way silently up the stairs. She frowned as a young boy  
walked out of his room across the hall from Usagi's and gaped at her, she  
silenced him with a finger to her lips and pointed to the bucket and  
Usagi's door. It took a second but the kid turned red and had to grab his  
mouth as he nearly exploded in laughter, he ran back into his room and  
grabbed his pillow off the bed.  
  
Usagi's door was unlocked and Ranma moved into the room to see Usagi curled  
around her pillow, drooling onto the mattress, she giggled in her sleep. It  
was one of the cutest things Ranma had ever seen, she had to bite her  
tongue to keep from touching the blonde. Ranma had never seen pajamas like  
Usagi's either, a white and red combo covered with little pictures of  
rabbits. Ranma walked over to the bed and spotted a sleeping Luna splayed  
out on the foot of the bed, she was giving off these light snores. Ranma  
tapped her on the head and grinned as she hissed and fell off the bed. She  
glared up at him until she spotted the bucket Ranma was holding.  
  
"You wouldn't?" Luna hissed.  
  
"I would." Ranma said calmly.  
  
"She isn't going to be happy!"  
  
"Heh!" Ranma said and swirled the water in the bucket. "Usagi, time to get  
up just like you requested!" Ranma said loudly.  
  
Usagi snuggled against her pillow. "mph...imsa."  
  
Ranma shrugged and decided to give her one more chance to wake up before  
she used the bucket, she grabbed the side of the mattress and lifted it,  
spilling Usagi on the floor with a thump. She still didn't wake up! Ranma  
shrugged again and tapped Usagi on her head, it had no effect what so ever.  
Ranma shrugged and upended the bucket over Usagi's head and hopped back out  
into the hall.  
  
Usagi screamed and flailed around as she suddenly found herself soaked to  
the bone, it brought the whole house running. Shingo, Mrs. Tsukino, and  
Ranma all laughed as Usagi finally settled down and pieced together what  
had happened. She glared at Ranma, who was peaking around the door, her  
long red hair nearly touching the floor. Usagi burst into a large red  
battle aura and stumbled to her feet. "RRRRRRRAAAAAAAANNNNNNMMMMMAAAAAA!!!"  
  
"Eeeppp!" Ranma said with a grin and headed for the stairs with Usagi  
flying right after her with a growl.  
  
They were soon in the front yard and Ranma was giggling loudly as she  
bounced all over the yard with Usagi trying to catch her on the ground  
snarling in anger. It was one of the few times anyone had ever seen Usagi  
actually mad at anyone, still, Ranma's little joke did deserve a little  
violence and everyone was getting a good laugh out of it. Shingo  
especially.  
  
"Come back here Ranma!"  
  
"Come on Odango, can't you take a joke?!"  
  
Usagi snarled and nearly caught Ranma by the ankle, but Ranma just twisted  
away and bounced off the fence and did a spinning flip over her head and  
using two fingers on top of Usagi's head as a pivot point. This continued  
for several minutes and Ranma was impressed with Usagi's stamina, she had  
been going full out for the whole time and was still breathing normally.  
Eventually Mrs. Tsukino took pity on Usagi and called her inside, Usagi  
gave a snarl and stomped inside, her long ponytails rising up indignantly.  
  
"Come on Usagi, can't you take a joke?"  
  
"I'm soaking wet!"  
  
"But you wouldn't wake up!"  
  
"Aghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!" Usagi's voice came back, Ranma winced and grinned at  
Usagi's mother who was trying very hard to not laugh at her daughter.  
  
"That wasn't a very nice thing to do Ranma."  
  
"Maybe, but is was a lot of fun." She countered.  
  
"Would you like to have breakfast with us?"  
  
Breakfast was an education for the whole Tsukino family and Ikuko silently  
declared that she would be more prepared the next time Ranma showed up to  
eat, that is if she allowed the girl to ever come back. She was as bad as  
Usagi and had a stomach just as deep. Of course the eating contest by the  
two was an eye opener, especially when Ranma and Usagi started stealing  
each other's food, right off each others plates. Then they had started  
taking from the rest of the family, then the table, then what was left on  
the stove, then they had the nerve to switch to the refrigerator. By that  
time they had totally forgotten about the rest of them, so Ikuko grabbed  
them and tossed them out the front door with Usagi's packed bags for the  
trip. It gave her a warm and fuzzy feeling when the four bags bounced off  
Ranma's head. One slammed door and the two teen were on their own.  
  
They staggered to their feet, Usagi stomping off out of the yard with a  
growl that surprised Ranma. She was confused at first, then thought she  
might have actually been mad at her. That actually came as a surprise, what  
had she done to piss the girl off? Sure the water was a little out there  
and just maybe could have been used a little differently, but it was all in  
good fun. "Usagi wait up!"  
  
"Humph!!" Came back and Ranma grabbed the bags and ran to catch up.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Like you don't know!"  
  
"I was just playing Usagi, I used to do that all the time with pops and he  
never complained or got mad."  
  
"You poured water on me!"  
  
"So, I used to get flung out third story windows while I was asleep. What's  
a little water."  
  
"Do I look like your father?!" Usagi snapped out, her pony tails raising  
indignantly, again.  
  
"Hell no, your a thousand time more good looking than the panda."  
  
Usagi, who was used to fighting with Rei and going at like this for half an  
hour or more blinked as her anger seemed to just vanish. She started to  
blush and faltered enough to let Ranma catch up with her. No one had ever  
given her a complement quite like that one before, she didn't know what to  
think of it.  
  
"I really didn't think the water would make you that mad Usagi."  
  
"Um..."  
  
"And you did ask me to wake you up."  
  
"Well..."  
  
"I even tried rolling you off the bed to the floor and you just kept right  
on snoring away."  
  
"I DON'T SNORE!!" Usagi yelled out, her fogged mind snapping back.  
  
Ranma blinked and looked at her curiously, then he smirked and looked  
around and Usagi 'eeped' when she noticed they were surrounded by dozens of  
couples heading for the docks. They were all looking at her and Usagi  
realized that she was still wearing her bunny pajamas, with the rabbits.  
She screeched loud enough to make even more people notice her and broke the  
sound barrier as she grabbed one of the suit cases and ran to a nearby  
public bathhouse. Ranma blinked and grinned as soon as the blonde was out  
of sight. She couldn't believe just how cute that girl turned when she was  
mad, she developed these little dimples and lost all focus for a second.  
Even that weird hair do looked cute when it lifted up as if by magic when  
her battle aura was actually visible when she got really mad. That girl had  
tons of potential too.  
  
In the bathroom Usagi was bright red as she quickly changed into a sun  
dress and tossed on some make up. She was still steamed, there was this  
desire to grab a large object and bash Ranma over the head with it. Then  
there was this other thing that was beginning to bother her, Ranma was  
treating her just like Mamoru did, insults and all. On some levels she was  
hurt by Ranma's words, but she couldn't pin down just what was up with that  
girl. She hadn't really wanted the tickets and yet had taken the time to  
win a pair. Had she expected to lose or had she been planning something, it  
just didn't make sense to her. Then there was the other thing her mind kept  
skirting around, Ranma's dislike of the boys at school.  
  
Even Umino hadn't been able to pin down a history on Ranma and it was  
driving him mad. There was supposed to be a boy named Ranma, but he didn't  
have any sisters or family that could have explained a female Ranma. There  
was the half baked idea that the female Ranma was in fact the male one, but  
that was impossible. She and nearly twenty other girls had seen Ranma naked  
in the showers after PE and she had a body to die for. No fat, sculpted  
muscles that made her look fantastic, was a 'natural' red head, she had the  
right equipment for a girl both above and below. There was no way she could  
be the boy that had her same name.  
  
Usagi was beginning to believe that one rumor she had heard was true  
though, that Ranma was a lesbian. She flirted shyly with most of the girls  
she had been introduced to and liked to play jokes that would end up with a  
girl showing off various pieces of their bodies, wet t-shirts, falling so  
that one's panties were exposed and such. Then there was that mysterious  
smile that she developed when she thought no one was looking, as if she was  
privy to a joke that only she understood. That smile was what had captured  
Usagi's imagination lately, what it meant was beyond her, but figuring it  
out was going to be fun if she was right.  
  
Usagi finished with her lipstick and stepped back to check herself out,  
smiled and packed the offending pajamas in the case, slipped into her inch  
high heels, and walked out of the bathhouse's locker restroom looking  
confident and alluring. She stepped outside and spotted Ranma just as she  
looked her way and spotted her as well. The girl seemed to pale for a  
second, then turned a little pink as she blushed, it made Usagi give a  
mental nod. Ranma had to be a lesbian or a Bi, nothing else made sense, but  
even she may have not been aware of it because she wasn't very blatant  
about her attractions. Usagi, though fourteen, noticed something else as  
well about Ranma. The girl was naive about anything dealing with girls and  
boys, it may have been the reason why she was so shy at times and so  
forward at others. She was glad she had decided to wear the heels, that  
made her feel more grown up in some ways.  
  
"Ranma, are you going to wear that school uniform on the cruise?"  
  
"Naw, just until we get to our cabin, then I was planning to change into my  
swimsuit and heading to the pool."  
  
"First thing?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"We probably won't be heading out until later this afternoon and we will  
have to mingle among the crowd to get a better idea of what all we can do  
while aboard."  
  
Ranma shrugged as she tried to regain control of her mind as perverted  
thoughts assailed her from all angles. She still had a male mind after all  
these months and Usagi was a very good looking girl no matter how weird her  
hair style was. The girl actually looked older than Ranma now and that was  
a little scary, the make up was noticeable, but it seemed to only make a  
woman out of a cute teenager. Ranma swallowed and looked at how interesting  
her feet were for a second. Shaking herself, Ranma pointed to the line for  
the boarding passengers.  
  
"Let's get in line and you can continue to fill me in on what else one can  
do while on board a ship like this."  
  
"Alright Ranma, by the way have you seen Rei or Ami?"  
  
"No, but we are several hours early so they may show up later. Rei was  
still getting ready when I left this morning."  
  
"Oh, well lets go and get settled."  
  
The ship was quite beautiful and over filled with people, everywhere they  
went there were more guests and activities. Even heading down to their  
rooms, Ranma and Usagi encountered several of the crew. They were helping  
guests with excess baggage and such, it was quite a sight. Several of the  
guests were already quite drunk or drinking, Ranma ignored them, she just  
wanted to their room and change into her more comfortable clothing.  
  
**********  
  
Meanwhile in another part of the ship the co-Captain's of the cruise,  
Jedite and Titus are looking over a large device that they used to convert  
the entire ship to their use. It had been child's play to take over the  
ship and it would be even more simple to dispose of it once they were done  
with it. Jedite was pacing back and forth, his arrogance evident in his  
every step. "An excellent plan Titus, I hadn't expected this kind of turn  
out. We will take huge amounts of energy here!"  
  
Titus was one of the few Youma that had advanced enough to attain a kind of  
human personality over the years, that had earned her the title of a High  
Youma. Only one in a hundred Youma could attain the true intelligence and  
freedom Titus had earned, she had done it through skill and a little luck.  
She was quite beautiful in her uniform and exuded a kind of sexuality that  
drew the eye from across the room. "Yes Jedite, there is no way those  
Scouts can bother us all the way out on the ocean and we can dispose of the  
evidence easily after were done. A win/win situation."  
  
"Indeed Titus, this is a plan that can not fail!" Jedite crows.  
  
The door to the room opens and a crew member looks inside. "Sir, all the  
guests are boarded."  
  
"Then cast off and take us out."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
"Are you sure those things aren't going to give us away?" Titus asks.  
  
"Their just low level Youma, they are to weak to cause to much damage and  
make great servants and cannon fodder if needed. Oh yeah, I have a little  
something I want you to do to. There was a red headed girl that boarded  
earlier..."  
  
"I remember her, she stood out like a sore thumb when she and that blonde  
haired girl came aboard."  
  
"Yes, I want you to watch that red head."  
  
"Sure, but why?"  
  
"She is the one I fought the a few weeks back, I want to make it a point to  
isolate her and kill her."  
  
Titus' eyes narrow and she nodded. "Yes sir, I understand."  
  
"Excellent." Jedite said and walked off.  
  
Several minutes later the ship casts off and the they slowly make their way  
out to sea. Most of the guests are used to traveling like this, but a few  
like Rei and Ami are having problems as they walk down the hallway. They  
are barely able to keep their balance as the ship sways to and fro. Ami is  
in a green formal dress and Rei in a red one, they make quite the sight as  
they move around. Rei loves the attention, but Ami is to shy to even accept  
it.  
  
"Rei, have you noticed that were the only ones here without dates?" Ami  
asks.  
  
"Yeah, a date would have been cool, but I'm happy to be with you as well  
Ami, were friends after all."  
  
"Thanks Rei!"  
  
Rei gets this look on her face and grins, she tastes it again and giggles.  
"Hey Ami, lets flirt with some of the crew guys and get someone to take a  
picture of it."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"To get Usagi jealous of course!"  
  
"You two need to make up, this fighting is just stupid." Ami snaps and  
pulls out a book to read as they walk. She suddenly had no problems with  
the way the ship is moving, to bad Rei can't say the same.  
  
**********  
  
Usagi twirls around her room and smile happily, she was here and it was  
just perfect. Well not perfect, she had Ranma here instead of Motoki at the  
arcade, but it was still good. She tossed her bags on bed and heard  
something she didn't want to hear. The sound of someone saying "Ouch..."  
  
"What was that?" Ranma asked.  
  
"I don't know, it came from one of the bags."  
  
Usagi grabbed her makeup case and flipped the hard cover open and jumped  
half way across the room as Luna and Ito tumbled out onto the bed. Both of  
them cursing up a storm. "That was uncalled for Young Lady!" Ito yelled as  
she fell off the bed and landed on her head.  
  
"What were the two of you thinking, just leaving like that, there are  
monsters running around Tokyo you know. We have protect the citizens from  
them, or had you forgotten?!" Luna yelled out. She hadn't fallen off the  
bed, but rolled end over end until she fell across the pillows.  
  
"Where here to relax a little and have a little fun, pick up some guys,  
make out a little, have fun!" Usagi said.  
  
Ranma just about fell off her chair at that, but managed to stay in place  
and silently deny it. She glared down at Ito, but found that she was  
glaring right back with a smirk across her little kitty face. The red cat  
rolled to her feet and stretched out to nearly double her length and  
unsheathed her claws. "You should have thought this trip out a little more  
Princess, there are lives at stake here and your running around playing  
dress up?"  
  
"Hey, I don't play dress up!" Ranma yelled.  
  
Ito hissed and pounced at Ranma, but she Eeeeeeped!! and attached herself  
to the cabin's ceiling. The red cat sailed through the space where Ranma  
had been and slammed head first into the chair, knocking it over. Ito  
rolled over and jumped at Ranma as she hung from the ceiling, she missed by  
a foot or two, but Ranma was just out of reach.  
  
"Get down here and take your punishment!"  
  
"No way!"  
  
"I'll get you yet Ranma!"  
  
"Not on your best day, cat." Ranma stuck her tongue out at Ito.  
  
"DIE!!!"  
  
Meanwhile across the room, Usagi was getting the third degree from Luna.  
"Well?"  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"Um..." Usagi began, then had an idea. "Where here to check out the cruise,  
it seemed a little odd to me."  
  
"Likely story Usagi, you just wanted another chance to goof off!"  
  
"It's true, there's something odd with this cruise, I just don't know  
what."  
  
"Then why did you bring so many of your good clothes and makeup Usagi?"  
Luna snapped.  
  
"Undercover work!"  
  
"Right." Massive amounts of sarcasm were evident in Luna's voice.  
  
Usagi stomped and glared at the cat, she may have been lying, but she  
wasn't about to admit it to the cat now. She pulled out her transformation  
pen and held it up high, commanding it to turn her into a photographer. One  
light show later and she was ready to work the ship over. "See, I will find  
out what is wrong!" Usagi said in a huff, grabbed Luna, stuffed her into  
the makeup case again and stomped out of the room.  
  
"I'll be back later Ranma!" She called out just before she left the room.  
  
"Good luck Usagi!" Ranma yelled as she waved back, Eeeeeeeeped, and fell to  
the floor just as the red fur ball attacked in all it's fury. The following  
fight is to gruesome to detail and only those with hearty constitutions  
could stomach it anyway. As for Ranma, she is soon laid out on the bed  
amidst all the baggage, her clothing shredded completely.  
  
A little while later Usagi is in the ship's souvenir stood looking around  
the area. She is catching some stares as she is tiptoeing around isles,  
staring at everyone in a suspicious way. The rack of sunglasses at the back  
of the store catch her eyes and she seems to materialize in front of them.  
The man behind the counter grins at an easy sale and hops over to help the  
young lady out. His eyes glint when he looks at all the merchandise in the  
little store, every bit of it will drain one's energy and give it to Master  
Jedite, but only he and the crew know this.  
  
Usagi on the other hand could care less, the sun glasses are the coolest  
things she has ever seen. "These are so Kawaii!" She squeals and starts put  
each set on and looking at her self in the mirror. The disguise pen had  
done a number on her looks, that was for sure. Where before she had been a  
cute teenager, she was now a more mature looking woman with short blonde  
hair. She didn't know what to make of the change, but knew that no one  
would recognize her like this.  
  
She grabbed the most 'spy' looking sunglasses she could find and paid for  
them. Little did she know that her mere presence had disrupted all the  
energy stealing items in the store. The sales drone wouldn't even notice  
until it was too late to fix things and by that time he would be toast.  
After that Usagi made her way through the various areas of the ship, danced  
with one of the crew in the ball room, played a few games while on deck,  
then joined a tour that was showing off various portions of the ship.  
  
By this time, it had been several hours and Luna, who was watching through  
some air holes she had cut through the makeup bag, was getting angry. She  
popped her claws and began to sharpen them, they were super hard and sharp  
after all. As a Farie cat she had to have some special abilities and being  
able to cut through most solid objects was hers. Luna noticed that they  
were heading into the hold area and slashed at the back of the case.  
  
The sudden pain in Usagi's side made her jump, startling some of the other  
passengers around her. She laughed nervously and stepped into a nearby room  
and opened the case. Luna poked her head out and gasped for air, glaring at  
Usagi and held up one of her claws. A beam of light reflected off the top  
edge of it and a 'Sheeeeen' sound seemed to fill the room.  
  
"U-sa-gi!" Luna growled.  
  
"What?!!" She whined.  
  
"Your supposed to be looking for signs of the Dark Kingdom, not playing  
games and having fun!"  
  
"I'm spying, I'm blending and working the room over." Usagi said in her  
best James Bond voice. Not very good for a teenage girl though.  
  
"Usagi!" Luna hissed. 'Well at least she is trying. If she was wearing a  
trench coat and fedora and tiptoeing everywhere I would have to make her  
pay.' Luna though.  
  
**********  
  
Elsewhere a blonde haired girl snuck down an alley and adjusted her trench  
coat and glasses. She sneezed and looked around fearfully, the white cat at  
her feet shook it's head and cursed under his breath. She looked up and  
saw several men on the roof and proved herself to be the worlds best spy.  
  
"Thar he blows!" The blonde said to the cat.  
  
"That's eureka , Minako!" The cat snapped.  
  
"Oh...yeah." Minako giggled and nearly tripped over loose brick and dropped  
her spy master 2000 kit. ^^  
  
***********  
  
There is a sound behind them and Usagi spins around to see a figure  
approaching them from the back of the room. She notes absently that they  
are in one of the holds, an area she wasn't supposed be. "WHAT are you  
doing in here?"  
  
"Um...I got separated from my tour group and I took a wrong turn I guess."  
Usagi says as she stuffs Luna back in her case.  
  
"That's reasonable, I suppose."  
  
"Were are we anyway?" Usagi says as she latches onto his arm.  
  
"In one of the storage holds." Jedite says as she wonders why he is being  
so nice to the girl. As far as he can tell she is mostly normal and a  
little plain, nothing to make a big deal about. 'She seems familiar too...'  
he thinks.  
  
After he shows her around some the ship personally he leads her back to the  
main deck. "Miss I should be getting back on duty now, but will you join me  
at the Captain's table for dinner tonight?"  
  
Usagi squeals. "Sure!!"  
  
Titus appears behind them and smiles at Usagi in a predatory way, but she  
doesn't even notice. "Captain, your needed in the wheel house."  
  
"Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes."  
  
"Yes sir." Titus says and walks off.  
  
"Until tonight then." Jedite says, tips his hat, and walks off.  
  
Usagi is just standing there with a weird look on her face and a blush  
forming on her face. "Wow..." she breathes out.  
  
"Usagi?" Luna says.  
  
"The Captain's table..."  
  
"Usagi!"  
  
"He's so cute!" Usagi squeals and bounce around the deck for a few minutes.  
  
"USAGI!!!!!!!" Luna yells, finally getting the love struck girl's  
attention.  
  
Usagi ducks into a nearby bathroom and opens the case to let the cat out.  
"What, I have to decide what to wear tonight."  
  
"I had a horrible feeling of dark power the entire time he was with us, he  
might be from the Dark Kingdom!"  
  
"Oh yeah right!"  
  
**********  
  
Ranma got up and quickly changed clothes, she wanted to explore the ship  
too. It would give her something to do, just to be safe she donned her  
bathing suit under her clothes. Now clad in her black pants and a white  
shirt, she turned around to look at Ito. Well, where Ito was hanging  
actually. The cat had taken the game to far and Ranma had used her shredded  
clothing to tie the cat up and hang it from the door in the bathroom. Ito  
glared at her.  
  
"Serves you right cat, you didn't have to take me leaving you behind so  
personally. I figured you wouldn't want to come, we are floating in the  
middle of the ocean you know. The largest source of water in the world,  
something most cats hate?"  
  
Ito glared.  
  
"Do you want to come on deck with me or not? You can ride on my shoulder or  
something."  
  
Ito glared.  
  
"Um...heh, um..." Ranma tried again.  
  
Ito glared some more.  
  
"Fine, your right and I was wrong!" Ranma said, giving into the bad feeling  
that was filling her chest.  
  
Ito rolled her eyes and glared.  
  
"Say something cat!"  
  
"Mph mhdk ajdlk!!" Ito said though the gag.  
  
"Oh Um...heheheheh...sorry about that." Ranma said and took the cat down  
and released her.  
  
"Your going to pay for that!" Ito snarled, her hair standing up on end.  
  
"Oh grow up, you attacked me and lost."  
  
"DIE!!!!!!!!" Ito pounced again.  
  
Ranma was on the ceiling again. "This is getting old, cat." She suddenly  
dropped, landed, and flipped over the attacking cat. Ranma smirked as she  
landed by the door and dashed into the hallway. The engaged cat ran after  
her, but Ranma managed to get the door closed just in time to hear her hit  
it head first with a resounding thump.  
  
"Gotcha!"  
  
She headed down the hall whistling an out of tune ditty before breaking  
into a run and heading up a couple of decks. Her stomach was empty and she  
needed to fill it quick, luckily the free ticket came with free food too.  
That had also been a deciding factor, though one she hadn't mentioned to  
Usagi. Sure it was on the ticket, but the blonde had been mooning over this  
cruise for days now and she had her head stuck in the clouds. Ranma vaulted  
up several flights of stairs, down a hallway, and skidded into the dinning  
room.  
  
Unfortunately Ranma also tripped over the rug and crashed to the ground  
taking out most of the line of people, the host, and several of the waiters  
taking food to the tables. The people in line went down like dominos, each  
person taking out the person in front of them and so on. Until the final  
one falls and the whole group is pilled all over the floor, this in turn  
tripped the waiters who sent their food flying. The rest of the room is in  
quite shock, but most shrug it off and applaud the floor show.  
  
Across the room Rei and Ami are eating dinner and Ami is feeling just a  
little embarrassed by the way Rei is acting. There is a small pile of  
plates sitting on the table next to Rei as she works on yet another pork  
chop in the last hour. "Rei that is your seventh Pork Chop!"  
  
"I'm hungry!"  
  
"Everyone is staring at us!"  
  
"Actually their starring at Ranma, anyway the sea air makes me hungry." Rei  
said, downing the last of her food.  
  
"..."  
  
"We don't have dates and that is why they are really staring. We are to  
beautiful girls here alone, looking for love and good looking men."  
  
"There are days I worry about you Rei." Ami mumbles.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Nothing, lets go and see if Ranma is alright."  
  
"Sure." Rei says, eyeing the rest of Ami's food.  
  
They walked over to the pile and helped several of the guests to their  
feet, but soon found Ranma at the bottom of the pile. A crew member walked  
over to see if everyone was alright and asked the rest of them to relax and  
let them deal with this. Then turned and glared at Ranma as she stumbled to  
her feet with Ami's help. She shook her head and wasn't able to think fast  
enough when the crew member grabbed her arm and gave it a little tug. There  
was an evil looking smile in his face as he motioned for one of the others  
to open the doors to the room.  
  
"Hey, what do you think your doing?" Ranma snapped.  
  
"Getting rid of a trouble maker." The crew member said and proceeded to  
toss Ranma out of the room.  
  
It was with more than a little curiosity the Ranma wondered where they had  
found a pair of metal garbage cans to toss her into. After pulling herself  
out of the pile of filth, Ranma cleaned herself up as best she could and  
ended up wandering around the ship and taking in the sites until she  
eventually found herself lost on one of the lower decks. She wondered if  
Rei and Ami were okay, but decided that they were fine since they hadn't  
been kicked with her.  
  
She spotted Usagi as she tagged along on a tour and picked up the Captain  
of all people. Who would have thought the blonde teen would have had it in  
her? Ranma just grinned and wondered briefly what she was supposed to do  
for companionship now that she was stuck in this female form. She had no  
interest in men and the mere thought sent chill down her spine. Ranma  
shuddered and kicked the though to the back of her mind, tied it up, and  
shot it. Repeatedly.  
  
She found a wall picture that described the various areas of the ship and  
how to get there. After several seconds she found a gym and grinned, it was  
full of everything she needed to train and have a little fun. Ranma took  
off at a run and was soon zooming through the ship, dodging crew and guests  
alike. The gym was several levels up, but with her speed and new abilities  
she made the run in record time. She burst through the doors and skidded to  
a halt, her head taking in the entire room with huge eyes. It was nearly  
forty feet long and two stories high, filled with equipment of all shapes  
and sizes.  
  
In one corner was a woman using a set of uneven bars while holding her body  
in place with her hands and arms while her shapely legs were spread to the  
side doing the splits. The girl was quite beautiful and had a perfect set  
of curves that went right into Ranma's brain and short circuited it. The  
girl had long blue hair, a toned body, and a form fitting body suit that  
left no doubt that she was all female. Ranma blinked, blinked again, and  
had to grab her nose as blood started to dribble out. Coughing and blushing  
she spun around and started to leave, her body was doing things she had  
never felt before. They were somewhat familiar, but to out of place to  
recognize.  
  
"You don't have to leave, I won't bite." Ranma turned around and saw the  
girl looking at her while she was doing a hand stand, then seemed to spin  
around the bar and dismounted, doing an easy flip and landing on the toes  
of her feet easily. She winked at Ranma and bowed.  
  
"That was pretty good." Ranma said.  
  
"Humph, I'm good enough to be a pro if I wanted."  
  
"Maybe, but I could do better." Ranma said with a smirk.  
  
"Just who are you to say such a thing." The girl snapped.  
  
"Ranma Mazaki."  
  
"I"m Captain Tslinka. I know a good number of gymnasts that are at my skill  
level and your name has never been mentioned."  
  
"I'm not a gymnast, I'm a Martial Artist and those moves are all apart of  
my style."  
  
"Prove it."  
  
Ranma shrugged and sauntered over to the beam. "Anything you want to see?"  
  
"Just do what I did."  
  
"Easily." Ranma took a second to remember exactly what the girl had been  
doing and placed it in her mind. Then with a lazy jump she grabbed the high  
bar and swung herself up and swiftly went through the entire thing in  
seconds, dismounting and doing a double back flip. Ranma had to use her  
will power to keep from making a fool out of herself when certain parts of  
her bounced and wiggled in ways she wasn't used to. It was distracting and  
a little painful, she kept this to herself and bent back to look at Tslinka  
in an amazing amount of dexterity.  
  
"Hah!"  
  
"Not bad, you've obviously had some training, but I don't think your as  
good as me."  
  
"That's true, I'm better than you."  
  
Tslinka glowered and stared daggers at the arrogant girl in front of her.  
She had come down here to get away from those idiots on the ship and what  
does she find, a jerk that thought she could possible be better than a high  
ranking Youma of Queen Beryl's army. She had spent years learning how to  
use her powers in ways that were unheard of and she had to put up with  
this. No way. "Yeah right."  
  
Tslinka motioned for the girl to follow her and they made their way over to  
the mats. "I want you to show you some of my moves girl, these are expert  
moves that only the greatest can do." She moved out on to the mat and  
stretched a little, failing to see the girl pale and turn red at the same  
time. She took her position and went into the hardest thing she knew, doing  
rolls, jumps, and dance moves that could make judges jealous with envy, if  
there had been any. She went like this for several minutes and kept her  
eyes on the red head. To her amazement she didn't see the look of shock or  
fear she had expected. No she saw the girl watching her in rapt attention,  
her eyes never leaving her body as it moved. Tslinka didn't know how to  
handle this, she was used to the Dark Kingdom rules. It was about here that  
she would have been in some kind of grudge match, each of them trying to  
pull each others hair out, firing blasts of energy to distract or kill  
their target.  
  
Sure this was the world they were trying to take over, but she had expected  
reactions like fear, hate, and jealously. Not awe, wonder, and a glazed  
emotion she didn't recognize. She landed in front of Ranma and held her  
position for a few seconds. Then relaxed and watched as the girl's eyes  
roamed down her body and seemed to be fascinated by something on her chest.  
Tslinka, confused, looked down and saw nothing out of the ordinary. "What  
is it?"  
  
"Um..." Ranma gulped and jerked her head away.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Nothing..."  
  
"It's your turn now, show me what you've got."  
  
Ranma gulped and tried to decide if she could do what Tslinka had done and  
decided that she could mix a number of kata together, but she would need to  
have more freedom of movement and that meant she had to take her shirt off.  
Like she cared about that, she took off and tossed her shirt to the floor  
by Tslinka. She did a few stretches and was glad she had remembered to put  
on her bating suit when she left. Once she was ready she launched into a  
mobile kata that used twists and turns, flips and kicks, and other violent  
movements to take out an opponent. Then she altered the kata subtlety and  
was soon moving across the mat with a grace that made Tslinka look like an  
armature.  
  
It also had her feeling funny, but she wouldn't mention that to anyone, no  
way in hell. She gaped as this red headed girl put her best moves to shame  
with jumps and spins she had never seen before. It was a humbling  
experience and one she didn't like, she was a powerful and intelligent  
Youma and this human was far better than she could ever hope to be. She  
almost burst into tears, but that was swiftly replaced by a rage that  
consumed her. Tslinka nearly attacked Ranma then and there, but held her  
ground. The girl was doing martial arts moves to beat her and that meant  
she was probably one of the best fighters in the area. Tslinka's rage  
turned to cold fury, even she didn't know if she could take a girl that was  
this good. Jedite or Kunzite could do it and she was probably full of all  
the life energy they would need. She was the perfect target, like a well  
trained battery that just had to be tamed.  
  
"Ha, I knew I could do it!!" Ranma crowed as she jumped around happily.  
  
"I have to admit, you are quite good, but not good enough to beat me  
human." Tslinka said.  
  
Ranma stopped dead and turned to look the girl over. "Huh?"  
  
Tslinka stepped back and her body changed. Her body took on a watery look  
to it, her hair turned even more blue and her face except for her eyes  
vanished into smooth skin. There was no mouth, nose, or anything else of  
interest, just eyes glowing in rage. An aura of power formed around and  
fired off a stream of water. Ranma eeped and dropped the ground and rolled  
out of the way. The water blasted a large dent in the steel walls of the  
room and sent a shudder through the floor.  
  
"What the heck is up with you, I just wanted to have a little fun?!"  
  
"THIS IS FUN!!"  
  
"Come on?! I just wanted to relax a little, not fight for my life!" Ranma  
yelled. She knew this was a Youma, one of those things that she had fought  
the other day, but she wasn't getting the dark feelings from this one that  
she had from them. She came to her feet and took a defensive stance. "I  
don't want to fight you."  
  
"Your energy could be enough to free my Master, give it to me now!" Titus  
yelled. "I am Titus, a Higher Youma and your worst nightmare human."  
  
"Like I haven't heard that before." Ranma muttered. This situation felt  
wrong to her, as if she wasn't supposed to be fighting this thing. Why she  
felt this way was a mystery, but it was enough to make her hesitate just  
enough to leave herself open to attack. Titus used it and sent a blast of  
water into Ranma and sent her flying back into a wall with a loud thud. She  
slid to the floor groaning in pain and winced as Titus hit her with more  
water, sending her off the floor and into the ceiling hard crack it. That  
didn't stop Ranma, but it did slow her down as she landed on her feet and  
shook her head. This fight was going weird, she was second guessing herself  
and didn't know why. A large part of her mind was torn and didn't want to  
hurt the thing attacking her and she didn't understand why.  
  
A small part of her had other ideas and these she agreed with since it  
meant she had a chance to fight back. Ranma ignored her instincts and shot  
forward to attack Waverider or Waffer or whatever it had called itself. Her  
attack took the thing by surprise, unfortunately since she was made of  
water the attack was useless. Ranma came in punching for all of her vital  
spots, hr hands moving in a blur of speed and power. Titus ignored the  
fists slamming into the surface tension of her body, it had been a long  
time since she had been attacked physically. It was an advantage she had  
always had, what kind of physical attack could hurt water? She flowed and  
twisted her arm to send out a cascade of water that enveloped Ranma in a  
jello like substance, pinning her in place.  
  
Then Titus used the stuff to pound the stuffing out of Ranma's body. Solid  
bars of water started to slam inwards to hit her in the stomach and back,  
in the legs and breasts. Titus kept this up for several seconds and laughed  
to herself at the effectiveness of the attack she hadn't had a chance to  
test yet, it seemed to be a great success. Then she noticed something, the  
red head was glowing a bright red/black that was pushing against the jello.  
Then Ranma screamed and the aura flared out in an explosion of power that  
blasted Titus back several feet and sent bits of the deck into deck heaven.  
Ranma was hovering in the air, her hair waving back and fourth a she looked  
up, her eyes closed. The eyes that opened were not Ranma's normal bright  
blue, but searing green that glowed with deadly intent.  
  
"That is enough!" Ranma yelled.  
  
Her aura flared up even more and her aura turned a deep red color and she  
glared at Titus as she pulled herself to her feet. Ranma's foot hit the  
deck plating and she launched forward, her aura flaring yet again, and  
slammed into the Youma with the force of a violent storm. Punches and kicks  
came at her from all directions as Ranma moved so fast that she left behind  
after images. Not that she noticed, she was to angry with the beating she  
had been taking just because she didn't want to injure the girl she had  
been competing against. Look where it had gotten her, she wondered where  
all these monsters had come from and why they were so insistent on using  
her as a punching bag.  
  
Using a final move, Ranma did a back kick and ended up shoving her foot  
through Titus' body. Ranma froze in shock, she hadn't meant to that. Then  
Titus seemed to reform and grabbed her leg and lifted Ranma into the air  
while she was frozen in place and slammed her into the floor like a hammer.  
Ranma cried out in pain as she felt her arm get dislocated from the blow,  
then screamed in shock as Titus tossed her into the wall.  
  
"Die you little pest, I'll drain all your energy and add it to my own to  
make myself more powerful than even Jedite ever was!" Titus yelled.  
  
She raised her arm and snarled in anger, a dark blue aura sprang up around  
her and spread out throughout the room, making the floor glow for several  
seconds. Then several monsters pulled themselves up off the floor, where  
they came from was a complete mystery to Ranma as she forced her eyes open.  
They were humanoid, but had no distinctive markings, just a kind of rust  
brown colored skin of some kind. They had no eyes, no mouth, nothing to  
define them as beings.  
  
"Go my minions, kill the red headed girl!" Titus yelled and pointed at  
Ranma as she took a defensive stance and hissed in pain.  
  
"Oh great, this all I need." Ranma muttered. Her aura sprang forth, though  
it didn't have the amount of power that the one from earlier had. That had  
been fueled by her fear and anger, neither of which she was feeling now.  
Instead she was beginning to smirk at the odds being placed against her.  
She was outnumbered, she was outclassed, and she was at a disadvantage  
against this powerful Youma. This was her kind of odds.  
  
"Bring it on lady."  
  
The things surged forward by the dozen, there was no form or tactics in how  
they attacked. They were just trying to overwhelm her with sheer numbers,  
Ranma just grinned and plowed right into them using a technique she hadn't  
mastered yet. The monsters were like a solid mass of some material, she  
could see the lines and points she needed to use the technique and just  
smirked at Titus as she closed in. Ranma's hands blurred as they lashed out  
at each of the attacking things.  
  
"Bakusai Tenketsu!!"  
  
Boooooom!!!!  
  
"Bakusai Tenketsu!!"  
  
Boooooom!!!!  
  
"Bakusai Tenketsu!!"  
  
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!  
  
Titus's eyes went wide as her lower Youma started to explode as if they had  
been covered in explosives. The dived to the floor as the explosions rocked  
the entire deck and left holes in the floor and walls. The lower Youma  
screamed in shock and sent convulsions through her as they died and were  
severed from her control. She rolled away and wondered what she had taken  
on, this girl wasn't human. Human's were weak things, barely even dangerous  
to be around and far to easy to kill. The perfect food and energy source  
for the might Dark Kingdom, this girl was a warrior of amazing skill. No  
wonder Jedite had wanted her to be watched and taken out quietly when they  
boarded.  
  
The entire area was filled with smoke and dust as it swirled through the  
air, Titus froze in shock as the last of her followers were taken and  
silence descended on the area. She looks into the devastation and gapes as  
a bright white light seems to fill it for a second and nearly blinds her.  
Then a shadow makes itself known as it walks towards her, the aura of red  
power easily visible around it as it moves. The form of a Scout steps out  
of the smoke and Titus knows that this is the red head she had been  
fighting, those deadly green eyes were staring at her and sent a chill down  
her spine.  
  
"W-what is y-your name..." Titus gasps out.  
  
"I don't have one yet, but you may call me what I told Blondie to call me.  
I am Ranko."  
  
"I am a Higher Youma, I will not back down." Titus said.  
  
"At the moment I don't really care. You started this, but I am going to  
finish it and put you down." Ranko says and flares her aura and melts some  
of the deck plates around her and starts some of the mats on fire.  
  
Titus gulps and nods, accepting her fate, though she would be damned if she  
let this little girl take her down as if it was nothing. She flipped back  
and landed, glaring at Ranko, then launched herself into the air and  
through the metal ceiling of the room. Ranko snarled and followed her  
through the hole she had made, landing on the next deck up. She spotted the  
Youma running down the hallway and took off after her.  
  
"Get back here coward!!" Ranko yelled.  
  
Then there was a shudder that went though the entire ship and knocked a  
good portion of the guests off there feet, even tossed a couple over board.  
Ranko growled as she sensed the build up of something up on the main deck,  
right where Titus was leading her. Usagi, Rei, and Ami also felt it and  
gasped as they recognized it for what it was. Rei and Ami were still in the  
dinning room finishing off their dinner before heading to the main ball  
room. Ami had her computer out and scanning the entire ship.  
  
"What is it Ami?" Rei asked.  
  
"I don't know, I had the computer turned off since we were on vacation,  
give me a sec."  
  
"Hurry, I've got this weird feeling."  
  
"Here we go...there had been a massive power surge a few decks below. I've  
got readings on the Dark Kingdom energies and Silver Millennium energies  
clashing a few minutes ago. I've got detections of a very powerful Youma as  
well, currently moving away from the Silver Millennium target."  
  
"What about the ship?"  
  
"Scanning...we've come to an emergency stop. There is another massive build  
up of power just a little ways from here."  
  
Rei groaned. "Why is it that where ever we go lately, those idiots keep  
showing up?"  
  
"Come on Rei, we have to do something."  
  
"Lets prove to Meatball Head just what we can do!" Rei said with a snarl.  
  
Ami just shook her head and made her way out of the dinning room, she was  
still a little amazed that most of the passengers hadn't turned into a  
panicked mob yet. If she had spent a few minutes with her computer she  
would have found a strange energy flooding the entire ship. Her and Rei  
moved out into the hall just as a Titus ran by them, closely followed by a  
Scout they had never met before. She was little taller than they were and  
glowing with energy as she ran. She spotted Rei and Ami and yelled at them  
as she flew past.  
  
"Mercury, Mars, move your butts and give me a hand, we have to stop them  
before anything major happens!!" Then she was gone and Ami and Rei were  
pulling themselves up from their dual face fault into the floor.  
  
"How did she know?"  
  
"Worry about it later, she needs a hand!" Usagi yelled a she ran past still  
disguised as a photographer. She skidded around the corner, slammed into  
the wall, and followed the new Scout.  
  
Getting up from yet another dual face plant, Rei growls and takes off after  
Usagi to get some answers. Ami is a little slower to get up, but is in the  
perfect position to witness the sight of the Dark Kingdom plan as it goes  
into action. A wave of dark energy lights up the all the lighting fixtures  
on the ship and begin to suck the humans dry. Ami, as a Scout is able to  
keep from being drained, but that isn't so for the normal human's around  
her. They dropped like flies and she was soon surrounded by the drained  
victims of the all the guests. She gasped at the speed at which it had  
happened and took off after Rei and Usagi.  
  
**********  
  
Titus ran up on deck and made her way over to the pool, she hadn't even  
stopped running when she tapped her powers again. Twin beams of power fired  
out of her eyes and hit the pool as she slowed to a stop. Behind her Ranko  
ran out on deck and noticed that her enemy had stopped, she made her way  
over slowly making sure to take in all of the different kind of hazards  
around her.  
  
"I will stop you." Ranko said.  
  
"It is already to late idiot, we made our move while you were chasing me  
through the ship."  
  
"Then I will reverse whatever it was you did."  
  
"Ha!!" Titus crowed. She had a mental link with Jedite for this operation,  
they couldn't talk to each other, but they did know what the other was  
doing at any one time. She brought her arms up and twin columns of water  
rise up out of the pool behind her and she begins to glow with dark power  
as she taps into the collected energy around the ship. "You are far to late  
little girl, you may have been able to stop me before, but now I have more  
power at my finger tips than even you can stand up to!"  
  
"She has help Youma!" Mars and Moon yell as they flank Ranko.  
  
Titus just laughs, the water behind her was beginning to alter in some  
indefinable way as it rose up into the sky. Then she brought her arms down  
and the columns twist and arc over their head and begin to fall. Aiming  
right for Ranko. "You are dead idiots, we have won."  
  
"Don't gloat Titus, just finish them off, NOW!!" Jedite yells as she hovers  
over the fight and watches the battle.  
  
"Of course General Jedite!"  
  
The water columns slam into the deck just as Ranko, Mars, and Moon jump out  
of the way. The water plows into the wooden deck and rips it to shards in  
seconds. Ranko lands on a nearby and flared and fired. "Möko Takabisha!!!"  
Titus is hit point blank and blasted into the side of the now empty pool,  
shattering a good portion of the pool tile.  
  
Moon and Mars landed on top of nearby roof and fired, not at Titus, but at  
Jedite. "Fire Soul!! Moon Tiara Action!!" The attacks though surprising,  
didn't catch him off guard and he had time to throw up a shield and laughed  
as the power washed around him. He hovered down a little and took a closer  
look at Moon and Mars and just smirked. He lashed out and fired out a blast  
of energy that slammed into the deck housing they were standing on. They  
had time to jump just as it went, Moon grabbed her Tiara again and threw it  
in mid jump and grinned as Jedite was sliced across his arm.  
  
"Shit!!"  
  
Titus turned to water and flowed out of the pool and reformed herself just  
as Ranko was about to reach her. Titus tapped into the stored energy again  
and fired, Ranko dropped and dodged, at a loss at how to stop the Youma.  
Then looks up and sees a life saver as Mercury lands behind Titus and  
motions for Ranko to prepare herself. Then fills the entire deck with a  
thick fog and Ranko goes into action as Mercury tossed a fire extinguisher.  
Ranma grabs it out of the air and lands just as Titus is at the height of  
the confusion created by Mercury's fog magic.  
  
"What the heck is going on, where did everything go?!" Titus yelled.  
  
Ranko landed and fired the fire extinguisher and soon had Titus hosed down  
into a nearly solid mass. She wasn't capable of moving as fast anymore, the  
confusion of the Mercury's attack is limited so she had to work fast. Ranko  
fires out another "Möko Takabisha!!!" and Titus screams in pain.  
  
Up above Jedite wasn't having a good time of it, his initial attack had  
been executed perfectly, unfortunately the Scouts had dodged it easily.  
Then he had gotten hit by Moon's attack his luck had gone down hill from  
there. Now he was facing off against Mars and dodging like crazy, how she  
was firing so fast was amazing in itself since her first attack had taken a  
second to power up. Now she was just firing off attacks with barely a  
second of time to concentrate. His shield was being pushed to its limits.  
  
"Moon Tiara Action!!" Moon yelled and threw her attack again. It soared out  
and arced right for Jedite, but he took a second to knock the thing away  
like it was nothing. Though it did slash right across Jedite's hand, be he  
ignored it as another of Mar's fire attacks slammed into his shield again.  
Jedite and snarled and wandered where Moon was getting the power to send  
her stupid tiara through his shield like it was nothing. Then he heard  
something he had been dreading and expecting, Titus' scream of pain.  
  
He spun around just in time to see through the fog as that red headed girl  
fired her blast right into Titus' chest and paled as Moon's tiara, the one  
he had just knocked away, sliced right through Titus' body and made her  
scream one of death. Jedite gaped as he watched Titus' body turn to dust  
and slowly disintegrate and vanish. She had been one of the most powerful  
Youma in the last few generations and had only been a few steps below his  
position and one of the one's Beryl had been watching with interest.  
  
"This isn't good..." Jedite mumbled, just as Mars, Moon, and Ranko focused  
on him totally and fired. He barely had time to bring his shield up again  
and he was blasted out of the air and through what was left of a nearby  
deck wall. He groans as he rolls to his feet and finds all four Scouts  
standing there watching him, all of them are decidedly ticked off.  
  
"Time to pay Jedite."  
  
"You can't stop me, this is only the beginning of what I am going to bring  
to you." Jedite snarls and starts to power up.  
  
"There are four of us and one of you Jedite, you are going down." Ranko  
says.  
  
"It is time for you to pay for what you have done to this city Jedite."  
Mars says and a red aura forms around her.  
  
Jedite flings his arm forward and a burst of power is about to fire off his  
hand when a black aura forms around him and he vanishes from sight. The  
Scouts gasp and go into a defensive ring in case Jedite is trying to  
confuse them, but he seems to be completely gone. Ranko relaxes and looks  
around a little more carefully as Mercury pulls out her computer and scans  
the ship.  
  
"Anything Mercury?" Moon asks as she relaxes.  
  
"About 40 percent of all the energy collected is returning to the victims.  
Titus seems to have used to the other 60 percent up during the fight."  
  
"Is everyone going to be alright?" Ranko asks.  
  
"Yes, but if we had been any longer most of the victims would have been  
hospitalized for months as they recovered from being drained. This way it  
is like they had run an extended marathon."  
  
"At least they are safe." Moon said.  
  
"What's this...oh my." Mercury said.  
  
"What is it?" The others asked.  
  
The cruise ship shudders and a kind of wavering of the air covers the  
entire ship for several seconds then changes before their shocked eyes.  
Turning into a giant rusting heap of scrap metal that is beginning to bob  
dangerously in the water. Ranko and the others just stand there and gape in  
shock at the change and wonder how such a thing could have happened. This  
was the first time anything like this had ever happened too, they had no  
clue what to do about it. Though Mercury seemed to make a quick decision as  
she typed on her little computer.  
  
"What do we do now?" Mars asked.  
  
"I just contacted the Coast Guard with my computer, they should be here  
within the hour." Mercury said smugly.  
  
"Will one of you explain what your doing here?" Mars asked louldly, glaring  
at Moon.  
  
"Um...heheheh..." Moon said.  
  
Ranko de-transformed into Ranma and smirked at the shocked looks on Mars  
and Mercury's faces. "I brought Usagi along when she said she had to be  
here."  
  
"Ranma?!" Mars gasped out.  
  
"What?" She asked innocently.  
  
"Ranma?!" Mars said again, as if Ranma was her worst enemy or something.  
  
"I know, I know I'm your idle and you want my autograph since I'm the best  
after all."  
  
"What?! Come back here you arrogant little..."  
  
Moon and Mercury giggled as Ranma ran past with Mars right on her tail.  
  
Meanwhile Luna and Ito are up to their ears in various kinds of food and  
snakes down in the dinning room. Surprisingly the food had been real and  
was the perfect place for the two of them to have a little chat together.  
Though chowing down on caviar and pate wasn't exactly a meeting of any  
kind, just a good way to get some free eats. They were cats after all.  
Though if a certain white cat had been there it would have been an entirely  
different story.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued... 


	6. Chapter 05 Revised

Notes - It's been a few weeks since I last posted a chapter for this story, it took a little longer than normal due to a bit of writers block (I started a couple of new ideas to get rid of it), and some of the stuff I did with Jedite in this chapter. I am trying to show a more workable version of the Dark Kingdom without redoing the entire thing from scratch. I like to stick to the core ideas of characters, but don't mind altering them to fit my needs either so long as they stay basically the same.   
  
Yes I have finally gotten my own web site up. It is just a basic one, but good enough to hold four stories for free. ^^;  
  
http://home.talkcity.com/BookmarkBlvd/crose9/  
  
**********  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 05  
By Cory D. Rose  
(c)2001  
**********  
  
Sailor Pluto was irritated for once, now this wasn't all that unusual for most, but for her it was a little strange. She had access to the biggest and most intensive cheat sheet in all of creation and even with it helping her she couldn't figure out what was going on. She stood before the Time Gate and watched as it hummed away normally and ignored her as she tired to make it show her what was wrong with the Time Stream. This was a rare occurrence and tended to happen when there was about to be a major change in the flow of time. In the last 10,000 years she had seen this happen maybe 3 times. There was no way to stop them and she knew that with every one that happened there was a chance that her dream of Crystal Tokyo could be obliterated.   
  
She despised the idea, but there was nothing she could do without breaking her Oath, to the first Queen Serenity, from so long ago. Pluto sighed and stepped back and did the only thing she could do in this situation, she reached into sub space and pulled out a large bottle of whisky and drank half of it. She'd had lots of practice over the years, to bad the stuff barely affected her anymore. After putting it back she sat down on a folding chair and looked at the gate again, then she glared and it sweat dropped.  
  
"Show me what is wrong."  
  
The door opened silently to show her a scene she hadn't expected and like any good history program was even in sound. She pulled a bowl of popcorn out of subspace and made herself comfortable, wishing for the thousandth time that she could remember to at least bring more than a dammed folding chair for her to relax in. The door opened into a large and very ugly hall that Pluto had only ever seen once before and smirked as the images flowed. She pulled a bag of caramel popcorn out of subspace and ate a handful and watched in interest.  
  
"It couldn't have happened to a better guy." She commented. Now if she could just get over this caramel popcorn addiction. ^^  
  
**********   
  
There were days that he hated his life, but there wasn't anything he could do to make it better. He could crush his enemies, he could take pleasure in cowing his minions if need be, but if he failed at anything it was like all his accomplishments had been for nothing. Of course he wasn't any better said a small part of his mind, but he ignored it. Jedite sighed and nearly chocked himself to death as he remembered where he was. Take a pit, fill it with a dark green slimy water, maggots, leaches, and other like minded creatures and drop victim in. Make sure it is deep enough so that they have to swim, but the level of the liquid is about a foot from the top of the pit then cover it with a bamboo or similar grate that is embedded into the floor.  
  
Don't forget to take the victims clothes, got to get all that liquid in places where it doesn't need to be after all. Jedite held himself in place in the center of the grating, he would have been against the side of the pit, but some enterprising fellow had put thousands of needle sharp spikes all along the wall. It had seemed like such a good and evil idea at the time too, Beryl had complemented him on it and everything. Him and his big mouth, now if he could just keep from swallowing to much of this stuff he might not be poisoned. Oh yeah, he complained to himself, take ideas from the humans since they are as evil as they are stupid.  
  
He had been dropped in here by a cackling Zoicite on Beryl's orders just three short days ago. Normal punishment in this manner was ten to thirty day, after two hours he had really wanted out. So now after three days he would have given up his first born child to get out and take revenge against those Scouts, especially that red headed bitch. She was going to pay for humiliating him like this, he was a General of the Dark Kingdom and had broken and enslaved beings more powerful than her for centuries!   
  
Jedite growled and again tried to break the magically reinforced bamboo, but had to give up after a few minutes. He reviewed his latest plan and wondered where it had gone so wrong, but the only thing he could come up with was allowing that red headed bitch on the boat. He had even smiled at her and plotted her death as she walked up the stairs from the dock to the main deck. Then there had been that blonde girl with her, she had to be connected to her in someway, he would find out even if he had do torture it out of the red head. Jedite screamed and thrashed for several minutes, it made him feel better.  
  
Things had been going so well until she showed up. He would send out a weak Youma to distract the scouts while he personally sucked dry entire buildings across town. Then she had shown up and caught him in the middle of a plan, he had later learned that his distraction had gathered more energy than he had. This in turn had Beryl on his ass again and she ordered him to focus on killing the little school girls instead of collecting energy, it should have taken a day or two at the most to do them in and get things back to normal. Then he learned that these Scouts, why in the hell were they so familiar to him, seemed to have the luck of the gods on their sides. He set up traps that they walked into with ease, then things seemed to blow up in his face as they took down one Youma after another.  
  
Even moving some of the operation to England had proven useless when a Scout showed up there too. They were making the little bitch famous too, he would have to put a stop to that when he had a chance. They were like bugs that he just couldn't quite catch and it was driving him mad, but it all boiled down to one thing. That red head was going to get what was coming to her when he had the chance. He would crush her spine and make her into a permanent sex doll or a mindless slave. To just kill her was a waste of time when she could be put to servicing a whole platoon of Youma or used as a battery to fuel a completely useless machine. Jedite laughed evilly and thrashed around again for a few minutes, he could feel something crawling up his inner thigh.  
  
He heard foot steps and looked up as Kunzite and Zoicite stepped up to the pit and smirked down at him. "Queen Beryl wants you cleaned up and brought before her Jedite." Kunzite said.  
  
"Do you think she meant washed down and naked?" Zoicite said. "OHOHOHOHOHO!!!"  
  
Jedite winced.  
  
"Now Zoicite, get a hold of yourself, Jedite had been punished for his stupidity long enough." He motioned and several Youma appeared to open the grate and pulled a shivering Jedite out of the pit.   
  
They dragged a limp Jedite down the hall and tossed him in a small alcove, he groaned. A water Youma, one of Titus' lowers, held out her hand and blasted Jedite for several minutes in a high powered wash that left him black and blue from the chest down. All of his magical defenses had been stripped from him when they placed him in the pit and blocked off his powers, so he had no protection from the force of the Youma's water cannon. Jedite recalled the beating he had received from Nephrite when he returned and seethed, this wasn't as bad as that, but they were all out to destroy each other and would take any advantage to bring one of their enemies down. Jedite would endure and triumph from this then make the others pay in spades, it was the way of this dark and terrible world. You were either the one in charge or you were a slave, there was no middle ground.  
  
Now clean and dripping, Zoicite looked him over with a barely concealed interest and tossed him a hand towel and told him to dry off. A few minutes later he was tossed a uniform and he donned the thing like a good friend. One of the few he could trust, but a blow to his back from one of the guards reminded him that he had more humiliation to come. He staggered under the blow and had to bit his tongue to keep from crying out in pain as a bruise was added to his already much abused skin.   
  
"Come Jedite, it is time and Queen Beryl is waiting for you in the main chamber." Kunzite said as he walked off with Zoicite holding his arm and smirking at him.   
  
If it wasn't for the fact that Kunzite could have blown him away with a simple flick of his wrist, Jedite would have insulted him. "Let's get this over with."  
  
"You have failed completely Jedite, you managed to get Titus killed and wasted more energy in this one operation than all the others combined. I'd say you are on the verge of being destroyed, Jedite." Zoicite giggled.  
  
"I agree with Zoicite, you have failed when it should have never even been a problem Jedite. Have you been doing it on purpose?" Kunzite asked.   
  
One of the main things Jedite hated about Kunzite was that on top of him being one of the most powerful Generals, he was as arrogant as they came. Only the red headed bitch seemed to be more arrogant, Kunzite seemed to have this concept that if it needed to be done then destroy everything in the path and build it back from the ground up as you want it to be. It made things easier to do, but tended to make most Youma fear him like the plague and very few ever stayed around to swear their loyalties to Kunzite, or Zoicite for that matter. "Kunzite, those little girls as you call them seem to have been designed to kill us and our Youma and they have this luck that allows them to find just the right way to do so, they are always in the right place at the right time. Don't underestimate them just because of what they look like."  
  
"Their young teenage girls Jedite, there is no way they could do everything they have so far."  
  
"Things were working along those lines at first, remember, then that red head showed up and things went to hell." Jedite snapped. The guard behind him decided that the prisoner was being too forward and backhanded him across the skull, sending him into a wall.  
  
"Thank you." Zoicite said with a smirk.  
  
"Agreed." Kunzite said. "Jedite, you forget your place."  
  
"I..." groan "...will get my revenge for this."  
  
"I doubt that Jedite, the Queen is royally pissed with you."  
  
The guard lifted Jedite off the floor like a sack of potatoes and set him on his feet, Jedite stumbled forward a few steps before he gained control again. He would make them all pay for this humiliation, he swore under his breath. He wiped the blood from his lip as he glared at all of them. They continued to walk along in silence for several minutes and Jedite realized this was the first time in a couple of centuries that any of them had been defeated like he had been. It reminded him of that time Queen Beryl had gone on a rampage as she purged all the suspected traitors from her ranks and killed over 30,000 of their Youma. Luckily it had only been Youma or Jedite suspected they would have been killed too, instead it had the exact effect that Beryl had been wanting in the first place. Unswerthing loyalty from all, no matter how stupid the order or dangerous, they feared Beryl more than anyone else in the Kingdom and would do it without question.  
  
They entered the great hall and Jedite was surprised to see that Beryl had opened it to the masses. There were thousands of Youma, Lower and Higher versions all around them as they made their way down the only path that lead right to Queen Beryl's throne. A garish one at that, made from the skulls of the 30,000 dead Youma from so long ago, all of them set in the black beryl stone of the main throne. Beryl herself sat on this in her formal dress that seemed to have been painted on, her red hair was a nightmare that was styled to induce fear in all that saw it. She had white skin and fangs to match, her eyes were cruel and glinted with evil and power as they studied him. In front of her was a crystal ball pulsing with evil power directly linked to the imprisoned Matalia who watched from all the eyes of the skull throne.  
  
"I have brought the prisoner, Queen Beryl." Kunzite said as he stepped forward.  
  
"Excellent Kunzite. Bring the condemned forward!"  
  
The guard stiff armed Jedite across the shoulder blades and propelled him forward several steps. The booing and hissing of the crowd told him that he was in serious trouble if even they were turning against him. He looked up at Queen Beryl and cringed, hoping for a merciful day seemed to be out of the question. "My Queen..."  
  
"Explain yourself Jedite, why have you failed to accomplish such a simple task?"  
  
"Those Scouts are tougher than they look my..." A blast of dark power fired out of the eyes of the throne and slammed into Jedite. He screamed as he was thrown the length of the hall and slammed into a wall.  
  
"I don't want your excuses Jedite, I want all the life energy in that city. Why have you failed?!!" Queen Beryl yelled.  
  
"...THAT RED HEADED BITCH IS WHY!!" Jedite yelled as he crawled to his feet.  
  
Beryl's eyes narrowed. "That newest girl, the one you told us about a few weeks ago, the one that had that silver crescent moon on her head?"   
  
Jedite coughed up some blood. "Yes!!"  
  
"You know what she is Jedite, you told me yourself she wouldn't be a problem so long as you took precautions. Were you lying to me?"  
  
"No!! If she was like the rest from Serenity's family from so long ago she would have been easy to deal with, but she is a Scout and a trained fighter like the Queen's Elite Guard. Those have always been hard to take down even when you take away their powers they have they know how to use their own life force as a weapon."  
  
"An Elite, one of those would be more than enough to free Matalia Jedite, why didn't you mention this either?!"  
  
"I didn't even know until this last attack, I saw her fighting Titus and winning and scanned her a little deeper. I didn't know..."  
  
"Silence!!" Beryl screamed. The guard grabbed and dragged him back and threw him at the foot of Beryl's throne in a body slam. Some dark power flowed out of the base and picked Jedite up by his neck and lifted him off the floor. He struggled for a few seconds as his air is cut off, clawing at the dark energy holding him. "Thank you for reminding me about Titus, it seems you have also cost us one of our most promising Youma as well Jedite. My patients is at an end with you. It seems you fail at everything you do now a days and that isn't a smart thing to do around here."  
  
Jedite screamed as black electricity fried him, but it stopped after a few seconds and he hung limply in the steel grip.  
  
"You shall be given one more chance Jedite, because of your excellent past efforts and unwavering loyalty."  
  
The dark power let go and dropped Jedite to the floor, he gasped for air and coughed for several seconds. "..."  
  
"Kunzite, Zoicite!!"  
  
"My Queen?" They chorused.  
  
"Take Jedite to his room and release him from is inhibiters, but put these on his writs as a reminder of his failure." Beryl gestured and a pair of iron arm bands appeared in front of them."They are a magical timer, once he leaves this base he will have one week to take the Scouts down or they will activate and bring him before me once more."  
  
"What will his punishment be for failure My Queen?" Nephrite asked from his place in the crowd.  
  
"...Permanent Crystal Imprisonment!"  
  
There whole room gasps in horror and cringes, Jedite barely manages to keep from fainting. "Great..." he gasps.  
  
**********  
  
She held up the slip of paper and frowned at it, if it had been alive it would have been cringing or running away in fear. The girl that had handed it to her didn't look all that pleased either and was getting ready to run if she needed to. Nabiki lowered the paper and sighed and looked around at the girl. "Is this all we came up with?"  
  
"I'm afraid so, the name Saotome is common, but combined with the name Ranma it gets a lot harder to connect. We couldn't find anyone in that age group with the name Ranma Saotome, all we came up with was the name Ranma Mazaki in Juban and that was a girl. Here's a picture of her from the file."   
  
Nabiki looked it over and thought the red head was quite good looking, but she was looking for a boy, not a girl. Unless...Genma Saotome was a liar and had a curse to, could that have been why Ranma abandoned him? Because that old fart managed to curse him maybe? Could it have been as a panda too? She doubted it, but getting Genma to talk was like pulling teeth sometimes. It didn't help that he was eating everything in the house either and her father expected them to just allow him to freeload. She looked at the picture and blinked as an idea occurred to her, if there was a spring of drowned panda could there be a drowned girl spring too? It was a little gross in her opinion, but if there was and Ranma fell in it, why did he run away like he did?  
  
"What else do you have on this Ranma Mazaki?"  
  
"She is an expert Martial Artist and is rumored to have magical powers."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"She has been seen helping the Sailor Scouts in Juban on a couple of occasions and was seen working out in the park a few weeks back. She ran around the park several times and ran a number of professional runners into the ground then spent a couple more hours practicing martial arts, like the run was just a warm up."  
  
"That's incredible, don't let Akane hear about that or she will go ballistic to prove herself, again."  
  
"We'll keep it covered up."  
  
"Let's dig a little deeper into Mrs. Mazaki shall we. Even if she isn't the one were looking for she could be very profitable if we set up the right environment."  
  
"Sure thing boss."  
  
After she had left Nabiki looked the picture over again and smiled as several more ideas came to her. She wondered if this was the time she would be implementing a plan she had been considering for some time now. She hated this school with her whole being and her younger sister was large part of the problem. This Ranma Mazaki seemed like she might be just what she was looking for. Nabiki shook herself and looked up just as the class idiot approached and sighed, yay, another deal to make.  
  
"Nabiki Tendo, I would speak with you!"  
  
"Hello Kuno-baby I have some pictures for you if you want some." Nabiki said as she pulled some photos of her little sister out. There were four of her practicing and the one that Kuno wanted, one of her in the bathroom. He paid nearly anything to get these glamour shots and Nabiki had to sell them to have enough money to keep her sister in building supplies to break. Like boards and cinder blocks, she tended to take her frustrations out on them instead of others, for which Nabiki was grateful. Though her sister had no idea about the nudes that Kuno had been buying lately.  
  
"Excellent..." Kuno grabbed the pictures and slapped 20,000 yen in Nabiki's hand. He started to drool over them and had this silly little grin on his face the Nabiki loved to see, it meant he was being perverted again. Then Kuno stopped and his eyes tripled in size and he began to shake.   
  
'This is new, he hasn't done that before.' Nabiki thought and stepped around him to see which picture he was looking at. It was the one of Ranma Mazaki that she had been looking at, she must have accidentally handed it over with the others. She cursed herself for her sloppiness, normally she didn't make mistakes like that. She grabbed it out of his hands and smirked as he blinked as if he had lost something precious. "Sorry about that Kuno-baby, she is someone I'm looking for, a relative of mine. I gave her picture to you by mistake."  
  
"Nay, the fates have chosen to shine down upon me this day, for your mistake has been my gain. That vision of loveliness had bewitched my heart and entrapped my soul eternal!" Kuno yelled and made a grab for the photo.  
  
Nabiki frowned and pulled it away before he could get his hands on it. "No Kuno, this photo is not for sale just yet. I might have more for you in the future, but for now she is off limits."  
  
"She is a battle maiden of power and grace, it shines in her eyes and grace and definition of her proud and noble body! I must have that photo to add to my collection Nabiki Tendo, how much?"  
  
"50,000 yen, see it's to expensive...." Nabiki blinked as said amount appeared in her hand and Kuno walked off with the photo. She couldn't even remember handing it over, but the money was a blessing in disguise. Whoever that girl was, she was a money making potential made flesh. Her looks could bring in millions of yen if things were played right, she had find her and get her to pose for some more shots. Nabiki pocketed the money, made some notations in her notebook files and spent the rest of the lunch hour taking care of bets and information gathering. She handed 10,000 yen to the girl that had brought her the information on Ranma Mazaki, much to the girl's delight, and told her it was a bonus for a job well done.  
  
After school she collected her things and exiting the school with a ton of ideas on her mind. She had plans to make and a train to catch, Ranma Mazaki had just become her new project. A fate that most of the student body of the school would have dreaded like a plague or worse. The Ice Queen was the last thing anyone in their right mind wanted to attract, her ideas and threats were thought out and implemented with deadly accuracy. After looking around for several seconds, she spots Akane just down the block, what is odd is that she is talking to a rather well muscled girl. She is wearing green shirt and a bandanna to hold her wild blonde hair in place.   
  
The girl is taller than most girls, very petty in a natural sort of way, and carrying a very large backpack. She is in a thread bare old green shirt that has seen better days, a pair of black pants with the lets wrapped in string, and has a tiger stripped bandanna on to keep her wild blonde hair out of her eyes. The girl looks dangerous and mean, like what one would find in a long time gang member or something. Nabiki wanders over and listens to them as they talk, she gets the surprise of her life when she does. Who would have thought she would get confirmation of her theory so soon after she had even considered the possibility?  
  
"How did it happen?" Akane asked concerned. A rare thing for Akane to be sure, considering her explosive temper tantrums of late. Nabiki was always on her toes around her sister, she didn't want to be on the receiving end of that Ki mallet again anytime soon. Though that was what had prompted her to start selling those nudes of her.  
  
"What's going on Akane?"   
  
"Hi sis, I was just waiting here for you when this boy walks up and starts to ask me something, I was about to pound him, when he is splashed by that puddle there when one of the buses sped by. Then he turned into this girl!"  
  
"Really? How did that happen?"  
  
"Um...well, I get lost easily and I wondered into this little valley in China while chasing one of my enemies. I was dealing with something when I tripped and fell into one of the springs and came out like this, luckily it is reversible and I stay human. There were springs there that turned people into animals like cats, bears, even pigs." The girl/boy said.  
  
"That sounds like a Jusenkyo curse to me." Nabiki commented.  
  
"It is, how do you know of them?"  
  
"Our family has an unwanted house guest that changes into a panda..."  
  
The girl growled and yelled. "A panda?!! If it is the same one, it may be the one responsible for my curse!"  
  
"I thought you tripped?"  
  
"I did, but a panda tried to clock me over the head with a wooden sign, while holding up other signs that said things like 'you are perfect' and 'my wife won't kill me now that my son is no more'. It was the signs more than anything that startled me and I tripped into the spring as I was dodging and backing away, by the time I pulled myself out the panda took one look at me and disappeared. I've been chasing it ever since."  
  
"Akane, this does sound like Genma doesn't it?"  
  
"Yes it does."  
  
"Genma...Saotome?" The girl snarled, her cute fangs glinting in the sunlight.  
  
"That would be him alright, why?"  
  
"I'm trying to find his son so that I can kill him."  
  
"You know Ranma Saotome?" Akane asked.  
  
"Yeah, the coward ran out on a duel we had set up."  
  
"Ran..." Akane snarled, she hated boys and this was all the proof she needed.  
  
"...Out?" Said Nabiki, she narrowed her eyes. Something wasn't adding up here and she wanted to know why.  
  
"Is this Genma staying with you?"  
  
"Genma is the panda." Akane said.  
  
"What?! Take me there, if he is the panda I want to make him pay!"  
  
"Excuse me, but what is your name any way?" Nabiki asked while she ignored the glare Akane was giving her.  
  
"Ryoga Hibiki."  
  
"Well Ryoga, follow us back to the house. Come on Akane, Mr. Saotome seems to have attracted a good number of guests lately."  
  
"What do you mean?" Ryoga asked.  
  
"Your not the first one to show up wanting a piece of Mr. Saotome."  
  
"Oh yeah, didn't that boy with the large spatula show up last week and beat him into the ground?" Akane asked.  
  
"Yep, and all those other girls and venders that had been following him for some time now." Nabiki said.  
  
"You see Ryoga, Genma has this habit that has our father frothing mad. It seems he likes to sell his son to families for food and engagements and stuff. Ranma will be lucky to get out of everything that old man did to him."  
  
Ryoga laughed. "That serves the jerk perfectly, ever since I met him he has been the cause of all my problems."  
  
Akane sighed and patted the transformed girl on the arm. "Well, lets get back to the house and get you some hot water."  
  
"Thanks Akane, I appreciate that."  
  
Nabiki rolled her eyes when the two completely ignored her and walked off together, well it should work out if she had any clue how things worked. Akane did hate boys and this Ryoga was half girl. She pulled Ranma Mazaki's file out of her book bag and flipped through it again. She grinned when she found several other pictures clipped to the inside, most of these were of her in gym or playing sports like any athlete would. She spotted something in one photo that she hadn't noticed before, she was wearing a school uniform, Juban High School if she was remembering right. Flipping back a few pages she confirmed it with the info gathered from one Umino Gurio, the information sponge from Jubaan High. She grinned, it looked like she was going to be taking a trip today, she wanted to meet this Ranma Mazaki if she could. The first thing she would do if she was going to give up her family would be to set up a false identity, but if it was Genma's son, why had he kept his first name and why was he going as a girl?  
  
Now what did those signs Ryoga mentioned mean? 'My wife won't try to kill me now that my son is no more', what had Mr. Saotome meant by that? To many questions and not enough answers to go around. Now this was getting interesting, what would happened to them if Ranma had showed up with Mr. Saotome? So far they had been dealing with a good number of Mr. Saotome's past mistakes as they caught up with him and most of them wanted to take things out on this Ranma as well. What kind of person was this Ranma and...why was she standing around looking like an idiot in the middle of the sidewalk?  
  
Sheesh.  
  
**********  
  
Ami was confused about something's that had happened lately, it was mystery she had been trying to solve for some weeks now. Her name was Ranma Mazaki, their princess and leader (supposedly) according to Luna. She was one of the oddest girls she had ever had the pleasure of meeting and that was saying a lot since she was friends with Usagi. Ami sighed as she leaned back in her chair, her mind elsewhere, she had been working on her home work when she started to think about Ranma.  
  
The girl was a mystery even now, she had turned down an invitation to come to all the Scout meetings they'd held since they found her. The one time Ami could remember her talking to them was when they first met and that had been a little hostile. When the cruise had happened and they had several hours to wait for the coast guard to show up, Ami had tried to talk to the girl, but she had avoided talking to them quite a bit by telling them she wasn't ready yet. Of all of them Usagi knew the most, well maybe Luna but she wasn't talking and Ranma's cat Ito was just a mysterious to them. Ever since Ito had shown up they had been inseparable, but a lot more secretive and closed mouthed about things.  
  
The only conclusion Ami could figure out was that they were hiding something from them. Something Ito and Luna knew about and something Ranma was afraid of, either that or she just didn't trust them enough. Usagi liked the girl, but had stated that she would get her revenge on her for dumping a bucket of water on her to wake her up and a number of other things she didn't want to talk about.  
  
Ranma was friendly to all of them, but she kept a wall between them to keep them from getting to close. If what she understood was true, that she was indeed their princess, Ranma would have to let her guard down and accept them all as her guards and friends. The one time they had suggested that she allow them to bodyguard her Ranma had fell over laughing. She was a fighter of incredible skill and power, even the Mercury computer was a bit baffled about some of her abilities at times. When she was transformed she was easy to read, but it was when she was in 'civilian' mode that the little computer was baffled about things. Ranma's energy readings seemed to waver depending on her mood, from a barely detectible trace when she was happy or asleep, to incredibly dangerous when she was angry.  
  
Her powers were also showing signs of altering in some way that Ami just couldn't understand yet. When they had first met Ranma she had been generating a pure Silver Millennium power signature, but over the past few weeks it had been changing mysterious ways and it was beginning to worry her. It wasn't a Dark Kingdom power signature in any way, just something different...and a bit unstable as well. That was the worst part, the fluctuations with her moods, magic shouldn't work like that. At least from the lessons she had read through in the little computer, they said that the body worked like a focusing lens of sorts to channel the magic. Emotions shouldn't have any reaction to the magic at all.   
  
Another problem was Rei, she did not like the princess in any way what so ever. They had been at odds from the beginning. Ranma had shown up out of nowhere and did something to make her grandfather just accept her right off the bat. Ami wasn't so surprised though because of two reasons, Rei's grand father was always looking for good looking girls to work at the shrine and there was something about the girl that just made some people either like her or really hate her. One scan of the girl had shown that she had this aura of magic around her that affected her surroundings, what it did exactly was unknown, but is was really powerful.  
  
There was knock on her door and it opened up to reveal her mother. "I wasn't sure if you were home or not."  
  
"I was just thinking; how was work?"  
  
"Pretty good, I got off early tonight because we have a guest coming by."  
  
"A guest?" Ami asked. They almost never had anyone come by the apartment.  
  
"An cousin of mine from way back, we used to go to school together."  
  
"Really, who is it?"  
  
"Her name is Nodoka Saotome."  
  
"I don't remember her."  
  
"I haven't seen her in a very long time, nearly sixteen years if I remember correctly. A couple of years before you were born."  
  
"How long before she shows up?"  
  
"About an hour so get cleaned up and ready."  
  
"Alright mom." Ami said as her mother closed her door.  
  
Ami had her communicator out a few seconds later and called Usagi and Rei.  
  
"Hi Ami, what's the problem?" Rei asked as she appeared in the little screen, she looked a little irritated.  
  
"I can't come over tonight like we planned, my mom just told me where having a guest over tonight and I have to meet her."  
  
"That's okay Ami, we can do it in a few days." Rei said.  
  
The screen blinked and a Usagi appeared, she was wearing a scarf around her head to cover up her nose. She seemed to be sneaking through an alley or some place equally dark and looking at the communicator covertly. "Good idea Ami, it gives me more time for my revenge. Tell me how it goes later, gotta go." Usagi whispered and turned off the communicator.  
  
Rei appeared again, her eye twitching. "What is Odango up to?"  
  
"I'm not sure, I think she is stalking Ranma to get even with her for pouring that bucket of water on her the other day."  
  
"...Ranma is here at the temple, she is currently in the bath room taking a bath...oh great...gotta go Ami, I think I can hear Usagi about to get in trouble." Rei said and turned off the communicator.  
  
Closing the communicator Ami wondered why things had gotten so weird ever since Ranma had shown up. It was so strange, before she had gotten here all they had to do was fight off a few monsters and listen to Usagi whine about it for a few hours and talk about boys. Now Usagi was about to do something to Ranma to get revenge for a that bucket of water, Rei seemed to actually dislike the girl for no good reason, and now the both of them were working together to get the girl. Ami took a few seconds to wonder what would happen, her curiosity was really peaked over this, but knew she would have to wait until tomorrow to find out.  
  
Grabbing a towel off the pile on her dresser she made her way to the bathroom to take her own bath and turned her thoughts to this Nodoka Saotome person that was stopping by. Work almost always come first for her mother and for her to actually take the time off from work to have a dinner like this was exceedingly rare. Ami thought about it and couldn't think of one time her mother had ever done something like this, it was out of character for her. For a split second Ami was actually jealous of the woman, her mother never took the time to do anything with her anymore, the job always came first. She sighed and suppressed the alien feeling as she always did, he mom worked at the hospital and that was a responsibility that took precedence over family. She was proud of her mom though, just tired of eating supper alone all the time, she would just have to make the best of this situation.  
  
Ami finished up and was just heading into the living room and adjusting her dress, a long dark skirt, a white blouse, and a stylish dark jacket, when she spotted her mom. She was dressed up in a pair of jeans and a bright pull over as she dashed around the kitchen humming a tune of some kind. Ami had to blink a few times, her mom was acting weird and didn't seem to be able to carry a tune to save her life.  
  
"Honey, could you set the table for the three of us?"  
  
"Sure mom." Ami said and went to grab the good plates out of the little hutch in the living room. She was just finishing up when the door bell went off.  
  
"Aghhhhh!! That's Her!!" Mrs. Mizuno screeched.  
  
Ami backed up a few steps and started to edge away from her mom, this was a little weird. "I'll get the door mom."  
  
"Okay, go grab the door and I'll get the food set out."  
  
Ami nodded and answered the door, there was a tall woman on the other side. She was wearing a flowered kimono, had a bundled rod of some kind strapped to her back, and was holding out a dish to her. "Thank you, come in." Ami said and took the dish, it was jello mold of some kind, with bits of banana floating in it. Yum. Taking a closer look, Ami noticed she had dark red hair, almost brown, and blue eyes. This Nodoka also looked a little sad, her smile didn't reach her eyes. There was a haunted look in them instead, it made a shiver run through Ami as she led the woman into the dinning room.  
  
"Nodoka!" Her mom yelled and hugged the woman.  
  
"Hellen!"  
  
"How have you been No-chan, it has been years, I was caught totally by surprise when you called me out of the blue like that."  
  
"I had to talk to someone..."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Nodoka sighed sadly and all but collapsed into a chair. "I lost my son."  
  
"Your son? The one you've spent the last ten years searching for? The one your husband took on that training trip? Martial Arts, wasn't it?"  
  
"Yes, though I wish I had been able to stop my husband from taking him. Now it seems I am never going to see him again."  
  
"What happed?"  
  
"I got this post card in the mail..." Nodoka said sadly.  
  
"What did it say?"  
  
"According to the post card they had recently crossed into the deeper and more dangerous sections of China. They stumbled across this place called the 'Pool of Sorrow' or something like that. The place was cursed with some kind of ancient magic, I'm still searching through my papers to find out if this place really exsists. From what the card says it seems that my husband supposedly turns into a panda when he touches cold water and back to normal with hot water. I've never heard about anything like it in all my travels, but I have a feeling this the truth."  
  
"That...that's insane!" Hellen yelled. "Did Ranma or Genma send that card?"  
  
"Ranma did, his handwriting was so different from those letters that Genma sent me..." Nodoka said with a snarl as she recalled her husband and what she planned to do to him.  
  
"What was the name of this place? Maybe we can help you find more about it." Hellen said and looked at her daughter.  
  
"Jusenkyo, but I don't think you will find much on it since it is in such an isolated spot in the mountains of China." Nodoka said.  
  
Ami wasn't so sure if that was the case, she did believe in magic and the name Jusenkyo sounded familiar to her for some reason. With the use of the Mercury computer she could look things up that most internet search engines could never find. Ami looked up from her thoughts and noticed that both women seemed to have forgotten she existed, oh well at least the story was interesting. She noted down a plan to look into Jusenkyo in the future just to see what this place was and if it was truely magic of some kind. Ami started to pay attention to the conversation again as Nodoka said something she had half expected.  
  
"I know, but get this, my son said that Genma had knocked him into a spring as well. This one turning him into a girl, a girl of all things and he can't change back because it was one of the permanent springs."  
  
"So your son now thinks he is a girl?"  
  
"According to the post card, yes, and it gets worse."  
  
"How can it get worse, did something else happen to them?"  
  
"You know what my husband did to my and our family." Nodoka said her eyes glinting with hate.  
  
"You'll get him No-chan, I know you will."  
  
"I have some idea of where Genma is, but I wanted to talk to one of my friends before I went looking for him. The bastared would actually run forever if he could and he knows I'm on his furry tail."  
  
"What are you gont to do to him?"  
  
"I don't know, my honor demands that I gut him and mount his head on the front gates, but since this isn't fuedal Japan anymore, I'm not sure. I've had so many plans for when we finally settled things between us that I just can't decide. Most of them end in his death or permenent destruction."  
  
Hellen shook her head, her friend has good reasons to hate Genma like she did, she was worried that the man would actually be able to stop her. She had been chasing him for years now, always a few steps behind him. The old fool seemed to have the instincts of an exceptional coward to be able to dodge his wife for this long. "No-chan you have always been to quick to pull that blade of yours to solve your problems."  
  
"I know, but it Genma will not get away with what he has done."  
  
"Maybe, but are you sure you're not letting your hatred get away from you?."  
  
Nodoka narrowed her eyes at her friend and reigned in her rage, the anger that she was always struggling to control when her husband was mentioned. "..."  
  
"Well we just need to see what we can do to find your son, even if he is now a girl for some reason, she should be pretty easy to find if we hire the right people."  
  
"I'm afraid I can't do even that."  
  
Hellen blinked in surprise. "Why is that?"  
  
"Genma, he did something to make sure I couldn't do that and even with my wealth results from investigators and the police are few and far between."  
  
"Don't worry about that No-chan, I will help you out however you need, this is your son were talking about here and your my friend."  
  
"No, I can't impose on you like that, I will just search for him by myself, like I have for years now."  
  
"No-chan let me help..." Hellen protested.  
  
"Excuse me?" Ami asked. "You haven't said what your son's name is and I'm kind of curious."  
  
"I haven't?" Nodoka said in surprise. "It's Ranma Saotome."  
  
"Ranma?" Ami said, hiding her surprise at the name.   
  
Nodoka and Hellen nodded and went back to talking while Ami wandered off to think a little on what had been said. Could Nodoka's son be their new reluctant Princess? They had the same first name and the Ranma they knew was a major tomboy, she refused to wear dresses unless forced or threatened, knew absolutely nothing about make up, was rude at times, thoughtless, and had foot in the mouth disease. Just like every other boy she had ever met in his age group, but if it was, why was she running around with them like she was?  
  
There were just to many questions to be asked and Ranma liked to keep to herself as much as possible. She was going to have to push things if she wanted answers to her questions, but it was quite possible she was wrong in some way and could lose a friend if she pushed to hard. No, Ranma was a Scout and quite possibly their Princess, she would respond to a open question truthfully. It was one of the things Ami had noticed about Ranma, she couldn't lie very well, she was to open and very naive.  
  
Then there was those readings she had gotten from Ranma over the last few weeks, her powers were fluctuating wildly. Could that have something to do with a boy that was changed by magic into a girl? Perhaps the Silver Millennium magic was at odds with the curse magic or maybe Ranma was a Princess only because of the curse magic's transformation? To many variables for her to look up, she needed more information to make a determination on the mystery. She would have tried the Mercury computer, but she had found that there were sections in it that were off limits to her or needed a code to access. Her answers may have been in there, but if they were she should have a way to access them since she was the one that supposedly programmed the thing in her past life on the moon.  
  
Ami shook her head, there was no other choice, she would have to have a long talk with Ranma about her past whether she liked it or not. She had to make sure they had the right girl for the job, to many lives were at stake to make a mistake this early in the fight. Coming back into the kitchen Ami firmed her decision that she wasn't going to mention Ranma just now. There was to much of a chance she was wrong in some way she hadn't considered just yet, only time would tell if she right or wrong.  
  
**********  
  
She went over her list. Dressed in black ninja costume, check. Handkerchief mask, check. Stole...er...browed her brothers super soaker water gun complete with shoulder strap and cool targeting scope, check. Usagi grinned and made her way out her window just after the sun went down. She would get Ranma back for humiliating her like that, the bucket of water, running through town in her pajamas. Grrr, being better built than her too, she would pay. Usagi used all her skills to run from shadow to shadow along the little used streets between her house and the shrine, making sure no one saw her move.  
  
Like a stealthy shadow Usagi moved with unerring grace and economy of movement, alighting from shadow to shadow like a wraith in the night. At a corner she peaked around to make sure no one was around to see her and moved on down the block with silent grace. She had been doing things like since she could remember, usually against her baka brother, but that didn't matter in the least, Ranma was going to pay. Just two more blocks and it would be time to go into battle. She stopped at the edge of a street light and carefully made her way around it so that she wasn't seen.   
  
She was just two blocks from her goal when she made just the tiniest of errors and nearly upset the entire plan. Usagi sidled up against a metal fence and thought herself lucky that there were no lights on in the house, then disaster hit...  
  
"BARK BARK Grrr BARK!!" Barked the demon from hell. (Mexican Hairless Chiwawa.)  
  
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Usagi screamed and ran down the street in a panic, tripped a little ways down and slammed into the metal trashcans set just into the edge of an alley. Clutching her bruised head, Usagi groaned and wondered just how many dogs were in this part of town as dozens of the started to bark up a storm. "Ite!!"  
  
With no grace or poise, Usagi rolled to her feet and ran away from the scene and hoped no one had seen anything. Gasping for air, she eventually reached the shadow filled stairs that lead up to the shrine itself and site of her prey. Slinging the water gun off her back she pulled a fedora out of subspace and placed it on her head, it was time to hunt. With a twinkle in her eye she grinned and moved into the bushes along side the steps and crept her way up to the top, slowly circling around to the back of the shrine. Her prey's room was located along the back if she remembered right.  
  
At the edge of the woods around the shrine Usagi went ninja again and started alighting from shadow to shadow once more. She was crouched down beside one of the small sheds out back when her communicator started beeping. Cursing silently, she hoped some monster wasn't attacking again, she had made plans for tonight. She carefully pulled it out and activated to listen in on Ami and Rei as they talked, she grinned evilly as she heard that her prey was in the bathroom, and the bathroom window was on the other side of the shrine from where she was too. It was to perfect to believe.  
  
Tapping a button on the communicator Usagi said. "Good idea Ami, it gives me more time for my revenge. Tell me how it goes later, gotta go."   
  
She slithered forward, around the rock garden (tripped over it), past another shed (bounced off it when she tripped over a rock) and across the small koi pond (she fell in with a loud splash) and made her way to the bathroom window and grinned when she saw that it was open to let in the night air. This set up was just to perfect to believe, even her brother hadn't ever been this stupid. Crouching under the window she stood up and peaked inside...the bathroom was empty.  
  
"Oh shit!" Usagi cursed and turned to leave.  
  
A powerful flashlight illuminated Usagi as she turned, her eyes widening in horror as she spotted Rei holding the light. Ranma, wrapped in a towel appeared out of the darkness and smirked as she held up what looked like a couple of water balloons. "Hi Usagi."  
  
"You wouldn't..."  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Usagi I can't believe you would do this." Rei said, for once looking smug at the cowering girl.  
  
"Any last requests?"  
  
"youcouldletmegowithoutharmingme?" Usagi squeaked.  
  
Ranma just shook her head and let fly.  
  
Splat!  
  
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The scream of despair filled the night sky.  
  
**********  
  
The door to the Tsukino's house slammed open and Usagi stomped in with snarl, slamming the door behind her. Her parents could only stare in shock as their daughter stomped her way up the stairs. She was covered from head to toe in some kind of green gel (Prell shampoo, Ranma didn't have time to fill up regular balloons ^^), her ninja outfit had been removed and replaced with a bunny outfit complete with ears, tail and open midriff. Someone had used the green gel to do her blonde hair up in some kind of Madam Frankenstein look alike contest.  
  
"That was way cool!" Shingo yelled and jumped up and down in glee.  
  
"SNARL!!" Usagi snarled at Shingo as she finished going upstairs and into the bathroom to clean up. 'Ranma and Rei were going to pay for this even if it took her a hundred years to do it!' She thought.  
  
Her parents were to shocked to do much but stare.  
  
**********  
  
An couple days later Nabiki was walking though Jubaan, Kuno's money and taxi's were a godsend, as she headed towards the main entrance to Jubaan High School. She was glad that things worked a little different in Jubaan than in Nerima, it made it easier for her to get things done. She spotted a geek that was doing business like she did at Furinkan, only the little idiot seemed to just give the information away and refused to use it to make money like she did. That was unfair, he made plenty of money off his information, he just seemed to care more about the consequences than she and her assistant's did. She waved at him and he made his way over. There was another reason why she liked him too, it was good for her wallet.   
  
"Hello Miss. Tendo."  
  
"So Umino, where did you get all that info on that girl?"  
  
"She's a class mate of mine."  
  
"I'd like to meet her if I can."  
  
"She isn't here..."  
  
"Why is that?"  
  
"School got out about half an hour ago and she doesn't go to any of the clubs around here. She hates being here and is off the grounds almost the instant the bell rings."  
  
"Your kidding, even I go to an accounting club once or twice a week."  
  
"She is a strange one, I would have expected her to be right at home in Furinkan actually. She is a fighter and can be as rude as they come and yet she can be the nicest person in the world if she wants to. Most of the boys in the school want to date her and the girls are violently jealous of her looks."  
  
"Oh, do you know where I can find her?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"What do you have in exchange?"  
  
Nabiki smiled, Umino never wanted money, he wanted in information or something that would sate his geek like cravings. She grabbed her bag and pulled out a disk she had gotten in trade with one of the odd Jubaan students that passed through Furinkan. "This is supposed to be either a powerful virus or a kind of infiltration program I came into position of, will it do?"  
  
Umino drooled and nodded. "You can find Ranma at the Hikawa Shrine a couple mile from here. She's been staying there for the last few weeks, as far is I know she is homeless and has nowhere else to stay."  
  
Nabiki handed him the disk. "Thank you, the more I learn about this girl the more convinced I become she is the one I'm looking for."  
  
"Let me know if there is anything else you need Miss. Tendo, I'm always willing to help out."  
  
"Of course, the same goes for you Umino, just give me a call if you need anything." Nabiki said as she pulled out a map of Jubaan and located Hikawa Shrine. It was a bit of a maze, but nothing serious if she stayed alert.  
  
Four hours later Nabiki was cursing herself for getting lost and dashed under an overhang outside an arcade just as the rain began to come down. She was in Jubaan, the sun was going down and it was raining worse than it did in Nerima at times. The winds buffeted her and almost peeled her off the wall she was hiding again, thunder rolled over the city and startled her. She wished the arcade was open for her to take cover in, but it was closed up and locked down just like most of the businesses along the street.   
  
She hadn't expected to get lost like this and hadn't brought alone an umbrella since it had been nice and sunny out when she arrived. Maybe this hadn't been all that a good idea after all she though to herself. Then heard something...odd...she turned her head and saw a monster standing in the street looking at her like it was hungry. Nabiki blinked and gulped, it was the ugliest thing she had ever seen in her life. It stood about two meters high and was somewhat female in appearance. It also seemed to be made out of some kind of tar like substance and wearing a tutu of all things. She had to repress a giggle as she stared at it, the thing was a florescent pink too.  
  
"What do we have here, lunch?" The thing said.  
  
"Not if I can help it." Nabiki muttered and tried to find the best escape rout, she would take her chances with the storm.  
  
"Be a good little victim and don't try anything heroic girlly, you won't like what I will do to you then."  
  
Nabiki blinked and took off, she wasn't going to fight this thing. She had some fighting skill, but this was one of Jubaan's famous Youma. She knew that only the Scouts could deal with these things with a minimum of damage. She flew around the corner and spotted a small hill in the distance, a temple, the perfect place to hide out from a Youma. The were supernatural and shouldn't be able to enter the place. It was perfect, except for one little thing, it was pretty far away and she was on foot being chased by the ugly thing in a tutu.   
  
Looking back she growled in anger as it seemed to be a Warner Brothers reject or something, it was casually trotting behind her as she ran. Keeping up with her easily, just like cartoon or something. What had she done to have this happen, she kept out of trouble and made sure all her bases were covered before she made her moves. Her enemies were very few and none of them could create or call a thing like this, was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time?  
  
"Come on 'Lunch' don't be that way, I just want your energy, it won't take long and you don't really need it anyway." The monster called out to her.  
  
"Baka!!"   
  
Lightning flashed and the thunder rolled around them as Nabiki ran and in the distance, at the top of the hill she could just make out a bright flash of red light among the trees. Whatever it was, Nabiki felt it was a good thing, she could feel in her stomach as she neared the stairs to the temple. She spotted the sign that said it was the 'Hikawa Shrine' and rolled her eyes at her luck, like it mattered now. She was gasping for air by now and cursing herself for getting so out of shape. Taking the stairs two at a time she flew up them quickly and recalled a few lessons from her youth from when her father had talked about the amazing things one could do when one mastered their own bodies to perfect the Art. Increased speed, stamina, strength, and power were all staples of her family art and she realized she had given that up after her mother's death. If she survived this she would take it up again just so she could survive something like this the next time it happened.  
  
Reaching the top of the stairs was a challenge for her and she had to stumble across the entrance way and marveled at the tall wooden gateway that towered above her and the steps. She had no energy left and hoped the tales of the temples being safe from monsters like this were true. It reached the top a few seconds later and strolled under the gateway as if nothing was affecting it and Nabiki knew she was in trouble now, this place wasn't safe. It wasn't a refuge or...  
  
The monster held out it's hand and Nabiki gasped as she felt her energy being drawn from her body. She gasped for air and tried to crawl away in fear, she whimpered in fear for the first time in years. Only Akane had ever made her feel this way and that had been a long time ago when she had been on the receiving end of her mallet. She gasped and felt her arms give way and she fell over, then the most amazing thing happened and had she the energy to do anything about it, she would have cheered in relief. A pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her and she was airborne.  
  
Looking up weakly, Nabiki saw the strong features and red hair of the girl she had been looking for. She was wearing a white Chinese shirt and from what she could tell, did not have a bra on to control her large breasts. Nabiki felt them flip in mid air and land so softly that she barely noticed, in the back round she saw a red skirted Sailor Scout launch a fire ball at the monster and blow it back off it's feet. Ranma smiled at her and sat her down as gently as a feather.   
  
"You stay here okay, I have to help out Mars."  
  
"T-thank you..." Nabiki stuttered.   
  
"No problem, I'll be back in a minute." Ranma said and patted her on the shoulder, then stood up and changed...her smile vanished as she turned around and dark blue aura of power exploded around her body and made her clothing ruffle and shift around. Then she brought her hands together and aura shifted from around her body and highlighted her hands. "Mars, NOW!!"  
  
The red skirted Scout fired off another fire ball and flipped to the roof just as Ranma fired a blast of bright blue Ki out of her hands and hit the monster. It exploded and blew the thing back several feet, it nearly recovered, but Mars jumped off the roof and kicked the thing in the chest, sending it down the stairs. Then two other Scouts appeared, one blue and another in white. They landed on top of the wooden gate to the temple, the one in white pulled off her Tiara and held it as it started pulsing with power, then threw it like a frisbee. Nabiki heard the monster scream from down below and knew it was dead, she thanked whatever Kami had been listening to her when she made it here.  
  
The red headed girl relaxed and waved as the three Scouts leaped off and vanished before she could get a good look at them. She turned back to Nabiki and smiled, it lit up her whole face and Nabiki had to use all her control to not break down in relief in front of her. Ever the professional, she steeled herself and slowly stood up and looked her rescuer over. She liked what she saw instantly, a perfect body and eyes that were as expressive as they came, she could see the worry in Ranma's eyes and it made Nabiki feel something she both dreaded and savored.  
  
"Are you alright, that thing got some of your energy before I could get to you, sorry about that."  
  
"That's alright, I'm Nabiki Tendo."  
  
"Ranma Mazaki."  
  
They heard foot steps and a dark haired girl in Shinto garb stepped out of the shrine and glared at Ranma. "Ranma, are you going to invite her in or do I have to do it myself, the Scout's already took care of that monster."  
  
"Sorry Rei, I hadn't gotten around to it yet."  
  
"Well move it, she needs to get some food in her stomach to shake off whatever that thing did to her."  
  
Ranma's stomach growled loudly, she blushed. "Um...Miss. Tendo would you like to come in for supper?"  
  
"Sure, I wanted to talk to you anyway."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Might as well ask me whatever it is then."  
  
"Are you Ranma Saotome?"  
  
Ranma kept a straight face, but the sudden anger in her eyes was a surprise to Nabiki. "Where did you hear that name?"  
  
"From Genma Saotome when I was told that I might be engaged to his son."  
  
"What makes you think I would know him Miss. Tendo." Ranma asked as they stepped inside and headed for the dinner table.   
  
Rei knew some of Ranma's story and even though she was putting up with the girl, she had found that she didn't like the girl very much, but her grandfather seemed to like the her and she was a hard worker so she would keep her mouth shut, for now. Just followed along behind them and wondered where this would go, Ranma didn't talk about her life previous to coming here and what she had heard was total crap. Who in the world believed in sex changing curses anyway? Rei wanted proof before she would accept that, unlike her grand father, and hoped things would work out before this wild card became a danger to the Scouts.  
  
"Ranma I watched that fight and could tell you were using Anything Goes Martial Arts Style. Genma Saotome practices every morning and I have watched him on a number of occasions, you use the same moves and stances."  
  
Ranma scowled. "Miss. Tendo, Genma used to be my father, but he abandoned me in China after I received my curse."  
  
"So you are Ranma Saotome, did you know about the promise that our fathers made twenty or so years ago about uniting the two schools of Anything Goes? Or the fact that he says you abandoned him?"  
  
"No, but I'm not surprised either, pops never was one to let a meal ticket go. He probably just promised that to get some free food or something. After all I was engaged to several other girls by the idiot, why would your family be any different?"  
  
"Other Engagements?"  
  
"Eight that I know of currently, pops was always hungry for one reason or another."  
  
"I didn't know all this, your father wants to find you so you could fulfill the promise between our houses." Nabiki said and recalled that the panda had just said he wanted to find his son since this was a matter of family honor she had taken it upon herself to do the job.  
  
"I gave up my family name Miss. Tendo, Ranma Saotome doesn't exist anymore, pops killed 'him' in China when he tossed me in that spring."  
  
"Why don't you change back, it can't be that bad, at least your still human."  
  
Ranma let off a bitter laugh that startled both Nabiki and Rei. "He didn't tell you did he, that figures, it was always his way to tell stories to make himself out to be the one that could do no wrong. There were a number of springs in that valley that were covered with wood and blocked off with a fence. When pops jumped out of the panda spring, he backhanded me at full strength and nearly broke my jaw. It sent me flying into one of these blocked off springs and shattered the boards like they didn't even exist, the spring was a permanent girl spring, there is no way to change back. I was so mad that he had taken my manhood away from me that I booted him clear out of the valley, it took me a long time to calm down. Even then I found that after repeated dowsing with hot water from the guide were useless, I can't change back."  
  
Nabiki nodded and filled that information away for future study if she needed it. "You said Mr. Saotome abandoned you?"  
  
"I traveled around for a few weeks while I contemplated Seppuku, I eventually ruled that out and went back for the fool. He is my father and I couldn't just leave him to suffer by himself so I back tracked and found him in this Amazon village near Jusenkyo, in a cage, but when I tried to talk to him he would just pull out these signs and ask who I was, or why there was this funny sound in the air, just like he did when he didn't want to talk to me before Jusenkyo. Eventually he got angry and told me that his son was dead and that he didn't know who I was."  
  
Nabiki and Rei were gasped, no wonder Ranma had given up her family name. Genma had disowned him. "Just because you were no longer a male?" Nabiki asked.  
  
Ranma nodded and sipped some of the tea that Rei had laid out before they came inside from the fight. "I tried to reason with him, but he was adamant about it so I talked to the Amazons and made one last deal to save my father. You see he had been tried and enslaved by them for crimes like stealing and back talking to them. You see the Amazons only respect women, when it come so men they take a obey or die mentality, of the few men I saw in the village most were broken men who couldn't think for themselves. Luckily I had been upgraded as they put it and were willing to tolerate me. Pops thinks women are weak and stupid and that they are useless, that they must always be protected in one form or another. He was constantly putting them and their ways down and he pissed off a good number of them in the short time he was there. I had to challenge one of their best to a fight and just survive to make sure they didn't kill him."  
  
"What happened?" Nabiki asked.  
  
"The fight was a brutal one, their toughest fighter was a girl named Shampoo and she is a stubborn as I am. We started fighting at noon and continued pounding each other for several hours, jumping all over the village and launching Ki attacks at each other. Those were my downfall though, she had several in her arsenal while I only had one and that barely controllable even then. She had this punching technique that allowed her to hit me hundreds of time in seconds, it worked on her kicks too and she eventually took me down with them. Fortunately they were impressed that I lasted as long as I did and they offered me a position as an Amazon. I even know of a technique in my own school of martial arts that can do the same thing, but hadn't had time to master it at the time."  
  
"An Amazon?"  
  
"I turned them down though because I don't agree with some of their laws, eventually they got me to agree to be an ally of the village instead. After that I spent about four months in the village being trained by the Elder War Masters. I later found out that the technique I mentioned was actually one of theirs and if I had used it they would have hunted me down and killed me to protect their secrets."  
  
"Ranma, you've never mentioned any of this stuff to me before." Rei nearly yelled.  
  
"Rei, you have made it pretty obvious you don't like me for some reason and I figured you didn't want to know. If you really wanted to you could always ask your grandfather since I told him a few days after I moved in here. Let's talk about something else, I don't want to think about this anymore tonight." Ranma said suddenly, looking sad.  
  
Nabiki sat back and wondered how much of that was true and false, she felt sorry for Ranma now that she had met her and didn't want to hurt her. She had been thinking that Ranma would be just like her father, a freeloader, thief, and dishonorable slob. This was a totally different person before, the girl's pain was obvious for all to see. Then Nabiki thought of a question that had been running around her head for most of the day.  
  
"Ranma, my sister ran into a guy named Ryoga Hibiki this afternoon..."  
  
Ranma blinked in surprise at the question and had to think about it for a second to even remember the guy. Then it came to her and she grinned at the lost memories. "Ryoga, I haven't thought of him in years. How's the moron doing anyway?"  
  
"He's out to kill you.'  
  
Ranma rolled her eyes and scratched the back of her head. "It's not over the bread feud is it?"  
  
"Bread feud?"  
  
"Yeah, me and him used to fight to get the last piece of bread during lunch time at our old junior high school, I'm better at aerial stuff so I usually won. He didn't like that very much and challenged me to a duel because of it."  
  
"He said you ran away like a coward..."  
  
Ranma scowled for a second then started to laugh. "Nope, I waited for him for three days to show up, but eventually I had to go. This was just before I went to China and pops decided that I had won since Ryoga had never shown up." Ranma didn't mention that pops had beaten him unconscious to make him leave the area, the girl's didn't need to know that part.  
  
"He's cursed, did you know that?" Nabiki said. She wondered what Ranma would say.  
  
"Cursed? What does he turn into?"  
  
"A girl."  
  
"A girl...Permanently?"  
  
"Nope, he says it is reversible."  
  
"Knowing him, he probably blames it on me too..."  
  
"Wrong again Ranma, your father is the one that did it some how."  
  
"Oh..." Ranma smirked as an idea hit him. "I bet pops was trying to use him to replace me for some stupid scheme or another..."  
  
Nabiki gasped, that was what was wrong with what Ryoga had been saying, that last piece of the puzzle, she slammed her head against the table for not seeing it sooner, it was so obvious too! She slammed her head down a few more times and sighed, the panda had lost his son and had a deal to keep with her father. Solution, find a replacement and trick or blackmail some poor schmuck into doing what you want. Ranma and Rei grabbed her and made sure she didn't do that any more. "Sorry about that, but I should have seen that right off the bat, I'm usually pretty good at figuring these things out."   
  
"Don't do that anymore Miss. Tendo, I don't want you to get hurt anymore and I think you've had enough for today."  
  
"Just call me Nabiki, okay?"  
  
Ranma sighed in relief. "Thanks, because of the way I was raised I don't have much of a social background. The Amazons helped with that and a number of other areas that pop's had failed to teach me as we were on the road, they had to go to some pretty extreme lengths to cure me of my bad faults."  
  
"That's okay Ranma, your a lot different than what I was expecting."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, I thought you would be just like your father."  
  
"No way, I haven't been like the old man since he tried to teach me the Neko-ken."  
  
"Well, that is good to know. What is the Neko-ken?"  
  
"Dig a pit, tie a young kid of five or so in fish sausage links, and fill the pit with starving cats (shudder as she recalls the training), and drop kid in pit. Make sure he doesn't have a way to escape and wait. Repeat until kid masters the Neko-ken or dies. It originally gave me a deadly fear of cats, luckily I was able to get over that fear with the help of a friend a few weeks ago."  
  
"That's insane!" Rei yelled. She didn't like Ranma all that much, but what kind of could she have led to have been tortured this much? Even she felt a little sympathy for the red head, no wonder she was so strange.  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Luckily some one helped me to find a way to over come the Neko-ken and get over most of my fears. Though I do tend to have flashbacks and some of the fear if I'm startled."  
  
"Ranma, I had thought your father was an idiot, this goes into child abuse and criminal conduct. He should be in jail for doing that to you..."  
  
"Pops is an idiot, but he has his moments, just like anybody else Nabiki."  
  
"He should be arrested Ranma..."  
  
"He is my father, no mater what he may think about me, I am still a student of Anything goes."  
  
"Maybe, but he did disown you."  
  
Ranma smiled and Nabiki blushed for some odd reason, it confused her. "Yep, but he never said I was thrown out of the school."  
  
"Are you going to come back to Nerima with me?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Maybe to talk to your father an see if he still wants to ignore you? He did ask me to find you."  
  
"I don't know..."  
  
"Ranma, you should go, it will give you a chance to reconcile with your father. My mother is dead and my father ignores me until he needs me to so something, then he pops up to make me do it. You should take whatever chance you have to make things better with your family." Rei said. She had doubts about it, but maybe there was a chance for them to reconcile or something, plus it would get her out of her shrine for a few days.  
  
"I don't know...I just wanted to stay away from the idiot..."  
  
"Please Ranma?" Nabiki asked.  
  
Even turned into a girl, Ranma just couldn't turn a girl down when they turned a pair of large, sparking, pleading eyes on her with out folding. Nabiki did this and Ranma crumpled like a leaf and sighed. "Fine, but I can't promise anything."  
  
"Great!" Rei said as she jumped up and ran for Ranma's room. "I'll help you pack."  
  
"What was that about?" Nabiki asked.  
  
"Got me, she has been mad at me since the day I first arrived here. I'd better tell Grandpa Hino that I'm going to be out of town for a few days. I don't think this is a good idea Nabiki, but I am willing to give it one more try before I cut off all my ties with the idiot. He did raise me for sixteen years." Ranma said and stood up. "While I'm getting ready to head out, do you want to use the shower while your hear to clean up from that monster?"  
  
"Thanks, I didn't want to just ask you about that."  
  
"That's alright, I don't have much use for formalities and stuff. Here, I'll show you the way."  
  
After dropping the girl off in the bathroom and showing her were the towels and cleaning stuff was Ranma headed back to her room. She stepped in and walked over to the bed to sit down. Rei hadn't started packing her things yet which surprised Ranma a bit, she had seemed excited to get her out of the shrine. At the foot of the bed was satisfied red cat, calmly buffing her claw and grinning evilly.  
  
"I wonder what happened to Rei?" Ranma muttered.  
  
"She stopped by a few minutes ago and tried to pack your things, but I showed her the error of her ways." Ito said.  
  
"Did she tell you that I'm going to be gone for a few days?"  
  
"What?!" Ito screamed and started hissing, her red hair standing on end. "You mean all that stuff she said was true? Your abandoning your Royal court to go off to some town with out protection or anything?!"  
  
Ranma gave the cat a half lidded look. "What do I need with a body guard, cat?"  
  
"You are the Princess of the Moon, that's what!" Ito yelled.  
  
"Wake up cat, I ain't no princess of anything, I got roped into this gig because of those damned springs and I refuse to believe that I am some reincarnated princess from some fairy tail kingdom or another. It sounds to much like a story line from some manga or anime."  
  
"So you don't consider your self a Magical Girl?" Ito asked snidely.  
  
"Of course not, why do you ask that?"  
  
"Only because of what a Magical Girl is, a young good looking girl that has a magical item that gives her powers, a revealing costume, and a cute and adorable side kick, that's what!"  
  
"Um...so what, it doesn't have anything to do with me." Ranma said as she crossed her arms and nodded, cutely. She refused to accept this no matter what she had been told or had done otherwise.  
  
Ito face faulted off the edge of the bed. "BAKA, those bracers are the magical items, the costume makes you a magical girl, and I'm your cute animal side kick!" Ito ranted.  
  
"Cute side kick? Hah, more like a large red bull's-eye!"  
  
Ito snarled and leapt at Ranma, who giggled nervously and attached herself to the ceiling, again and stuck her tongue out at the hissing cat as it jumped up and down in an attempt to get her with it's claws. Outside the rooms window Luna was rolling on the ground laughing her feline butt off at the sight. She had stopped by to talk to Ranma about what she had done to Usagi a few days before, it hadn't been at all nice. She would have been here that night to give Ranma a piece of her mind, but she had been under Usagi's bed giggling for most of the night.  
  
**********  
  
Ending Notes - Check out my new site at http://home.talkcity.com/BookmarkBlvd/crose9/  
  
This chapter has gone through several revisions in the past weeks to help correct some of the mistakes I made in past chapters. As it goes on I have found it increasingly hard to bring in much of the Nerima crew except as small parts So I came up with this to settle some things.. I also brought in Ranma's mother in this chapter, but she still has no clue who or what may have happened to her son since she recieved the post card. This will be dealt with slowly as I get closer to her first appearance in the core story line, but I have some plans for her that will alter her in strange ways.  
  
Jedite had failed once to often and is now on the ropes with only one more chance to live or die. How will he deal with this and what do the other Generals think about his actions? They don't want to end up like Jedite, but they want to have a chance to take on the Scouts as well, how will this change things in the future? We'll just have to wait and see...  
  
Notes 2 - 


	7. Chapter 06

Notes - It has been a while hasn't it? Well this is then next chapter and it finishes up the last chapter and introduces Nodoka as a main character to the story. It took a while to get this chapter done because I had to almost completely rewrite Nodoka's character and get White Phoenix's permission to use an idea of his and develop it from there. I left things a little vague in purpose and they will be explained in future chapters.   
  
  
**********  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 06  
By Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c)2002  
**********  
  
Dealing with Nabiki had been an experience for Ranma, she was very good at getting her to do what she wanted. Coming to Nerima was about the last thing she wanted to do, but the girl had turned on that super cute puppy eyed look for some reason and crushed all of Ranma's resistance. Ranma cursed herself for a fool for giving in too, she had decided that after talking with Ito for a little while that staying in Jubaan was a better idea. So she had waited until the girl got out of the bathroom and told her that she had decided not to go.   
  
Then Nabiki had tried to bribe her with a new dress or manga, whatever interested her if she would come. Ranma refused, she wasn't that easy to bribe, the Amazon's had tried it on several occasions as well. She had more than a enough pride left not to fall for that kind of thing again. Then Nabiki had tried to use reason and Ranma dug her heels in and refused even more. Then came that damned technique that always worked, the tears and big innocent eyes that must have shattered her will like a sledge hammer and melted her mind until she was babbling anything to make the girl feel better. Ranma wanted to scream, that one always got her to cave in no matter how hard she tried to not be affected. Shampoo and the other Amazon girls had discovered this and used it to make her do things that had been just plain weird. So with a sigh she had given in, again, but by that time it was nearly midnight, much to late for Nabiki to be walking the streets so she had spent the night in Ranma's room. After a quick call home to let her sisters know where she was, Nabiki was given the bed while Ranma curled up on the floor in her sleeping bag.   
  
The next morning had been a bit odd to sat the least, Nabiki had wanted to get up early to make it to Nerima as soon as possible. They had forgotten to take into account one little fact, neither of them were morning people and when the alarm clock went off at five the next morning, it's short life came to and end as Ranma crushed it and tossed out the window into the bushes. They ended finally got up an hour later as Ranma's years on the road woke her up at dawn for what would have been a morning sparing match with the old man. Instead she had shake herself to remember what was going on, spent twenty minutes waking up a dead to the world Nabiki, and went out to train while she took a bath. After that Ranma had gotten cleaned up and they had caught the but to Nerima.  
  
Nerima wasn't what Ranma had expected either as they got off the bus the next morning at eight, luckily it was a Sunday and they didn't need to worry about school. She looked around and stared at all the different dojo's they walked passed. There were dojo's everywhere, one or two per block at times, they seemed to be everywhere. Ranma had never seen so many in one small an area of a large city like Tokyo, to her knowledge most dojo's tended to hold large areas of land that they supported and defended with brutal efficiency. A bit of curiosity made her wonder how such a district could have come about, the odds of so many different schools being in one place had to be nearly impossible.   
  
Ranma's pack was weighing her down today, it had been nearly three months since she last carried the thing around like this. She was a bit surprised to not that she had already lost her body hardening from the heavy thing. She rolled her shoulders and adjusted the weight of her pack as they moved across a busy intersection, Nerima seemed to be a mix of both old and modern society in Ranma's estimation, what a strange place. Most of the land that supported dojo's also seemed to have an old ancestral family homes built right next to them, it was just the weirdest thing she had ever seen. Even the business seemed to be designed to support the increased martial artists in the area, walls were reinforced and streets were designed with an easily replaceable material.   
  
Nabiki pointed all this out to her as they walked, pointing out something new and interesting every block or two as they passed by. Ranma, if she had known Nabiki a little better, would have been a little disturbed to find out that she was doing this tour for free. A strange and rare thing for Nabiki Tendo, the Ice Queen of Furinkan and all around Mercenary to the core. According to Nabiki, this entire district was dedicated to those families that were martial artists and decedents of the Samurai families like the Kuno and Takahashi families that at one time ruled the entire area.   
  
She explained the strange set up too, it seemed that at one time there had been a war in the area. One of the ruling families had decided that they wanted to know about or use all the different types of martial arts in the world and invited all the warrior families to live in the area and practice or teach as much as they wanted. Over time all these school, who moved here for the low rent and multiple challenges, had grown into a steadily growing district and proven that they could actually live and work with each other. Nabiki even told him that the district counsel had set up a number of empty lots through out the area as places where martial artists could train and fight. At first these lots had been clean and very usable for that very purpose, but over the years they had become over grown and unused and were now just empty lots that got little or no use.   
  
"This is Furinkan High School where me and my sister Akane go to school." Nabiki said as she pointed out the school to Ranma.  
  
"What's with the all the holes in the walls along the entrance?"  
  
"The Kuno family is a little...insane, a Tatawaki Kuno goes to school here and has declared that if any of the boys in school wants to date my sister Akane they have to defeat her in combat, so him and a number of boys have a battle most mornings. The damage is from where the boys end up when my sister kicks or punches them through the walls to relieve her anger at the whole stupid situation."  
  
"I take it these Kuno's are total idiots?"  
  
"Completely, but good for a quick buck if one plays them just right."  
  
"What, you cheat them?" Ranma asked, raising her eyebrow.  
  
"Nope, I just charge him for information. I make money off bets and selling information, I use it to help support my family."  
  
"Why would you need to do that?" Ranma asked curiously, this Tendo family seemed to be just one surprise after another.  
  
"Um..." Nabiki said, why the hell had she told Ranma that? It was one of the few things she didn't like to tell anyone, it could ruin her reputation at school if anyone heard or used it against her. Then she shrugged, for some reason she wanted to Ranma to know the truth. "Well, our father was...devastated when our mother died and he stopped teaching and the money stopped coming in. Me and my sisters had to take up the slack of keeping the family going."  
  
"Oh?" Ranma said as they tuned a corner to walk the last few blocks to the Tendo Dojo and accidentally runs into someone as they came out of nowhere. They both go down in a pile, Ranma giving out a girly shriek of surprise as she went down, someone heavy landed on top of her. Ranma groaned and blushed at the unmanly reaction and sat up to see a boy wearing a bandanna sitting up to look at her. His eyes tripled in size and he turns bright red for a few seconds, then the most amazing thing happens.   
  
"Oh hi Ryoga..." Nabiki starts.  
  
Ryoga's eyes rolled back and blood exploded out of his nose and all over his shirt as he falls over in a dead faint. Ranma and Nabiki blinked and gagged in disgust at the sight, though Ranma has learned enough of her affect on men to know that she was the cause of this, she just didn't know what she had done, this time, to make the poor boy just pass out like that. Ranma looked down at herself, nothing was out of place and since she wore double layers of clothing with her normal out fit nothing perverted was showing.   
  
"Is this normal for him?" Ranma asked as she flipped her long braid over her shoulder.  
  
"I have no idea, I've never seen him as a man before, I only recognized him because of that pack and the bandanna. I've only met him while he was in female form and that was a few days ago when my sister dragged him home."  
  
"...so round...so firm...oh...my god...heheheheh..." Ryoga mumbled in his sleep and giggling lecherously.  
  
"Well, that explains that, he's a pervert though and through." Ranma said as she stood up and glared at the boy. She had found out first hand just what a pervert was while she traveled across China challenging various fighters. She'd found that she had to fight most of the male fighters two or three times because they always thought she was a weak girl, the only way make sure this didn't happen was to hit them so hard that they shattered walls and took out trees with their flying bodies. This seemed to make them rethink that assessment that all girs were weak mentally and physically. They usually spent more time during the fights and watching from the sidelines looking at her tits than what they were doing and got pounded for it. Ranma didn't hold back all that much when she fought anymore, it just made everyone think she was weak.  
  
"No kidding, he better be careful of my sister, she has a dislike for anything male that even gives a suggestion of perversion."  
  
"Poor guy, he needs to get some better luck. He was always obsessed with finding his way home, a family curse if I remember right, he could spend weeks away from home looking for it. Back in school he used to arrive at school for a few days, sleeping in a tent near the front door to the school, then go and get lost for a few weeks before show up again for a few days. Eventually we had to walk him to and from school just so he could get an education even a bad education."  
  
"You went to school with him?" Nabiki said, looking Ranma up and down.  
  
"Yeah, it was an all boys school and pretty rough to. Me and Ryoga tended to get into two or three fights a day during the six months I was in the area. It was the most fun I had during the entire stay there, the guy has a lot of brute strength."  
  
Ryoga suddenly groaned and sat up holding his head. "What happened?"  
  
"You took one look at my magnificence and passed out." Ranma said and took a model like pose that showed off her chest while she tried to look as innocent as she could.  
  
Nabiki snickered and started at her own reaction.  
  
Ryoga looked up and paled again, but this time Ranma's hand shot out and grabbed him by the nose. This kept him from passing out again, though he started to giggle nervously and rub the back of his head, his eyes were a little glassy as well. Nabiki remembered Ranma doing that while she was talking to her at the temple, it certainly made this Ryoga really cute in a bashful kind of way.  
  
"What are you doing out here Ryoga, are you having dinner at my place tonight?"  
  
Ryoga giggled some more and blushed as he stood up, holding his own nose. "Um, yeah...I was just at the house went to use the bathroom and ended up outside for some reason, I don't even remember leaving the property. I know it has to be around her somewhere, I'm just not sure where."  
  
Ranma nodded, that was just how she remembered the idiot.  
  
"Well lets get you back to the house, Akane is probably beginning to worry about you by now. How long has it been since you left?"  
  
"Um...about half an hour."  
  
"Well come on, were headed there too." Ranma said and grabbed Ryoga by his elbow and started to drag him along. The Lost Boy turned a solid read and started to mumble to himself as they moved along. Ranma had to let go when he started to get a nose bleed again, what in the hell was causing that? A few minutes later they were standing in front of the Tendo Dojo, it was about like most of the other houses in the area. A large family house with a larger dojo just out back with a good sized back yard and a koi pond. They opened the front gate and made their way inside just as the front door of the house opened and a cute girl in a dress and apron stepped out to greet them.  
  
"Oh hello Nabiki I see you brought home some guests. Ryoga, where have you been, Akane was worried about you."  
  
He lowered his head. "Sorry about that Kasumi, I got lost..."  
  
Another girl came barreling out of the house and latched onto the Lost Boy's arm, she was a little shorter than he was, had long blue/black hair and carried herself as a martial artist Ranma noted. She smiled at the boy and started to drag him back into the house, but stopped as she noticed her sisters and Ranma. "Who?"  
  
"Call me Ranma Mazaki, you must be Akane, your sister here told me about you."  
  
"Akane Tendo."  
  
"Akane, this is the panda's son, the one that he turned into a girl when he knocked him into on of those springs at Jusenkyo."  
  
"So he is just like Ryoga?"  
  
Ryoga gaped then narrowed his eyes at Ranma, maybe this wasn't his angel. It must be a demon in disguise, he would have to find out the truth, but if it was Ranma...  
  
"No, pops turned me into a girl permanently. I left him when he disowned me while I was staying at the Amazon Village just outside Jusenkyo." Ranma explained quickly.  
  
"Ranma is that you?" Ryoga said quietly, his rage starting to grow just behind his eyes. He clenched his fists and growled.  
  
"Hi Ryoga, it has been a long time. About three years if I remember correctly."  
  
Ryoga snarled in rage and his world turned red, he screamed rushed forward in a blur that none of the girls could even see and decked Ranma across the jaw so hard that she went flying back into the wall. She slumped down, then rolled to her feet and growled at Ryoga. "You had better have a damned good reason for doing that Ryoga."  
  
"Why weren't you there at the appointed time Ranma!"  
  
"The fight? It was 'appointed' to be Friday afternoon Ryoga, I waited for you to show until Monday morning on account of your problem with getting anywhere."  
  
"You broke a promise between men Ranma..."  
  
"I did no such thing you moron, I waited three days for you to show up Ryoga. Why weren't you there on time, it was a challenge match after all."  
  
"Do you think I was wandering around Japan for my health?!"  
  
"You set the time and place for the match Ryoga, you're the one that didn't show up."  
  
"Because of you I've seen hell and lost three years of my life Ranma. I'm going to kill you for that!" Ryoga pulls an umbrella from out of nowhere and charges Ranma with a massive a swing. Ranma drops and rolls out of the way as Ryoga's swing impacted the gate and blew it clean off it's hinges, reducing it to firewood. The sound of the decimated gate echo's across the block as the Lost Boy turns towards his enemy seeing nothing but a red haze of anger and depression.  
  
"Ryoga calm down and think about what you're doing!" Ranma yells as she motions for the Tendo girls rush into the house to get out of the way.  
  
"Ranma be careful." Nabiki yelled as they all ran inside, but Akane and Kasumi were giving Nabiki a weird look.  
  
"I showed up on the fourth day and you had ran like the coward you are Ranma, I followed all the way to China and will continue to go even further to make you pay for my suffering! DIE YOU BASTARD!!!" Ryoga yelled and swung at Ranma again, but this time Ranma hopped upwards, landing on Ryoga's umbrella and kicked him in the face, then back flipped off of the strange weapon and landed in a crouch a few feet from the boy. Then spun around and swept the boys feet out jus as she stiff armed him in the chest, sending him flying back with a grunt of pain.  
  
"Calm down Ryoga, you don't know..."  
  
"DIE!!" Ryoga yelled when he had caught his balance, pulled a number of bandana's off his head, and suddenly tossed out dozens of spinning bandanna's that Ranma dodged and weaved around with ease. Ryoga ran forward and tossed his umbrella like a spear, but it was dodged just easily, though it did tear a hole in the side of the house when it hit. As Ranma dodged, Ryoga managed to grab onto her ankle and hefted Ranma above his head single handedly and slammed her down into the ground to create a crater in the ground. Ryoga did this a couple of times before Ranma was able to pull herself back together and retaliate. She rode a swing and waited for Ryoga to slam her against the ground again before kicking him in the wrist and rolling away when he clutched his hand in pain.   
  
Ranma grunted in pain and could tell that her left arm was dislocated as she rolled to her feet and glared at the Lost Boy. She grabbed it and with a loud crunch that everyone in the house heard, reset it just as she exploded in an aura of blue power. Around her the dust and rocks started to lift off the ground and fill the air around Ranma. Ryoga, not expecting this kind of retaliation, backed up and wondered if he had made a mistake. Then Ranma screamed and a crescent moon appeared on her forehead and her aura turned a bright silver. Her blue eyes lit up and started to glow with power as she glared at Ryoga. Then she vanished in the blink of an eyes and a sonic boom rolled over the area. Ryoga desperately looked around with his eyes and senses, but there was no sign of Ranma or where she had gone.  
  
Then his world exploded in pain as Ranma appeared, her fist planted in his stomach as he slowly bent over from the shock of the blow. Then his day got worse as Ranma started to flicker in and out of sight all around him, punching and kicking faster than he could defend himself, until finally Ryoga found himself lifted off the ground by his throat with Ranma's pissed off silver eyes glaring into his own and he knew he was finished. "Ryoga, I have some news for you, I have changed since I was permanently changed into this body and no matter how much you'd like to beat on me or blame me for your problems, I will never allow you to hurt me for your own personal delusions." Ranma said in a whisper that scared Ryoga so much he almost pissed himself.   
  
His senses were telling him that there was a super powered monster standing in front of him that he had ticked off. Then he started to gasp for air as Ranma tightened her fingers around his windpipe and nearly crushed his throat. "This was our duel Ryoga, it is finished and I expect you to honor it as if it had happened years ago. I don't have time to put up with this kind of crap, not from you or anyone else. Do you understand me?" Ranma snarled.  
  
Ryoga gasped for air and nodded franticly. This wasn't the Ranma he remembered, the one that irritated him to no end, the one that insulted and mocked him day after day, the bread stealer or the one that destroyed the reputation that he had spent years developing to keep others from making fun of him and his family curse. This was a fighter of unmatched skill that Ranma had only been a glimpse of in those days, this was a monster that could crush him with a single finger and not even break a nail.  
  
"Excellent. If you had attacked me when I was still a man, we might have been more even in our skills Ryoga, but this change came with powers that I'm just scraping the surface of and I don't have time to be playing with you over a stupid bread feud." Ranma said as she dropped Ryoga and stepped back. She flared her aura up several more times what it was just to let Ryoga know she was still holding back and stalked towards the front gate. She wanted nothing to do with this place if this what she had to deal with. She hadn't wanted to come here anyway so to come here again would never happen.  
  
"Ryoga, are you alright?!" Akane yelled as she rushed outside and started to examine Ryoga and was surprised to find that he had no broken bones, just lots of bruises. Still this was Akane and she just didn't know when she was outclassed and rounded on Ranma as she walked to the front gate. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!!"  
  
Stopping, Ranma turned around and looked at the girl. "Protecting myself, he did attack me with lethal intent. I learned my lessons from the Amazons in China, never let an enemy like him go unless they know what you're capable of doing."  
  
"I won't just sit back and let you beat up my friends!" Akane yelled and took up a defensive stance.  
  
Ranma smirked and noticed Nabiki step out onto the porch and take in the situation, she rolled her eyes. "Akane stop this, you can't take Ranma in a fight."  
  
"I'm the best Martial Artist in Nerima, I can beat anybody." Akane snarled.  
  
"The best, Hah, you don't even know how to use your Ki yet. Even Ryoga can do that, but I never gave him a chance to use it, or your house would have been destroyed in the blast. How can you defend against that when you don't even know how to use little girl?" Ranma said just as an older man in a brown gi and Kasumi stepped up beside Nabiki. He had his hands behind his back as if contemplating something. Kasumi just looked worried and scared, she didn't understand quite what was going on.  
  
The man turned to look at Akane and sighed, then looked over at Ranma and paled a little. "Are you, like my daughter has told me, Ranma Saotome?"  
  
"Ranma Saotome died in China when his father disowned him publicly, after all Ranma was a man and I can't be that anymore."  
  
"So you used to be Ranma Saotome?"  
  
"Yes, I'm Ranma Mazaki now."  
  
"Are you going to wait for your father to come back here in a little while, he went out on an errand for my other daughter Kasumi. Also what are you going to do about the promise between our families, the schools must be united?"  
  
"Don't ignore me!" Akane screamed and launched forward.  
  
To Ranma, who had battled against the Scouts, several Youma, and some super fast Amazons she was so easy to read it was pathetic. Still, Ranma had learned her lesson about mocking weaker opponents, having been on the receiving end of a lot of it while with the Amazons. Stepping back Ranma took up an open stance and calmly blocked all of Akane's punches. That didn't mean she wouldn't make an opponent mess up by insulting them into a blind rage though.  
  
"Don't over extend your punch, it places you off balance."  
  
"Point your toes where you want to punch, it adds power to the attack."  
  
Ranma's hand flashed out and tapped Akane in the head, chest, and stomach, then lightly kicked the girl half way across the yard. Staying in position, Ranma slowly brought her leg up even higher and did a standing split that had Nabiki blushing. She wondered why it was getting so warm suddenly. "Finally, you need to work on your defense, as demonstrated by the taps I did while you attacked me Miss. Tendo."  
  
"You Pervert!!" Akane screamed and jumped forward, a Ki mallet appearing in her hands.  
  
Ranma just shook her head and wondered who had taught this girl how to fight, she was making novice mistakes. Channeling a bit of Ki to her foot Ranma snap kicked the mallet and popped it like a bubble, then punched Akane in the head. She collapsed next to the frightened Ryoga, who held her protectively, glaring at Ranma, but she ignored him as if he wasn't worth it.  
  
"Mr. Tendo, the only thing I'm going to do with pop is beat him up when I see him. This whole situation is his fault anyway, he took us to Jusenkyo and got both of us cursed. As for the promise, well are any of your daughters lesbians?"  
  
"W-what?" Soun said, suddenly blushing.  
  
"Are any of them lesbians, my body is female, but my mind is still male and that means I like girls. Two girls can not marry and since my curse isn't reversible like Mr. Directionally Challenged here, I can't marry any of them anyway. Sure we could make a couple if they were interested, but I doubt any of them are." Ranma said, noting the red faced Nabiki smiling at her, she waved shyly, Ranma began to sweat nervously and backed up a few steps and bumped into something.  
  
"Groghf!!"   
  
Ranma turned around and jumped back as she spotted her idiot father, in panda form and smirked at him. "Hey old fart, care to have a 'little' talk about what you did in China?" Ranma said and cracked her knuckles.  
  
*What are you doing here, you are no longer welcome around me or my friends.* Said the panda's sign.  
  
"Oh please, like you ever cared what I did before old man."  
  
*Leave, or I will take you down permanently.*  
  
"You don't have the power old man."  
  
*Kasumi, can you get me some hot water, I have to take care of this Ronin.*  
  
"Of course Mr. Saotome." Kasumi said happily and went into the kitchen.  
  
A few minutes later a now human Genma Saotome was glaring at his ex-son, the traitor that refused to change back to a man. "Explain something to me boy, why did you give up your manhood?"  
  
Ranma blinked. "What in the hell are you talking about you old fool, I didn't 'give up' my manhood. The transformation was permanent, you were there when the guide told us that, you were there when he poured gallons of hot water over my head and I failed to change back."  
  
"I recall no such thing."  
  
Ranma just shrugged. "Kasumi, is there any hot water left in that kettle?"  
  
"Oh yes."  
  
"Pour it over me would you, it seems the idiot here has a selective memory when it comes to his mistakes."  
  
The water poured over Ranma as Kasumi tilted the kettle, but the change didn't happen and Genma backed up several steps. "What the hell did you do to make it permanent like that, you did it intentionally!"  
  
"Moron, you knocked me into a permanent spring. Just like you made Ryoga there trip into a spring when you were trying to bash him in the head. Why would you do such a thing old man, is there more to this stupid marriage that you haven't explained to me?"  
  
"Shut up 'GIRL' you are no son of mine while in that form! When you go back to being a man I will acknowledge you again, but until then you have no family, no name, nothing!" Genma snarled.  
  
"It looks like you want to take another flight over the surrounding country pop, come on now, let me give you a hand."  
  
Nabiki was confused, Mr. Saotome seemed to have forgotten everything he had told her when she set out to find his son. Sure he was now female, but that wasn't any reason to act like this to one's own child. Even as the 'Ice Queen' she knew this and took measures to make sure she never hurt a child with her dealings. Then there was her father, he was acting strange too, almost like he used to before mother died. He usually cried at the drop of a hat, or wailed at his daughters being in danger, this was different...it was almost like he had a plan in mind. Then Mr. Saotome took a stance and she saw her father shift as well and Nabiki's eyes widened. Her father had the family honor blade in his hand, it's bindings removed.  
  
"Wha..." The two fools were going to try and force Ranma into something, but how would they know she was going to be here?  
  
"Now Tendo!" Genma yelled and flared up in a yellow aura and launched himself at Ranma.  
  
Ranma just shook her head and shifted to block her old man, but was caught off guard as Mr. Tendo jumped at her as well. He had a blade in his hand as he pulled it from it's sheath, it was an attack she hadn't anticipated on. So she did the one thing the old fart wouldn't expect, he was used to dealing with his son, not the girl that had taken his place because of the permanent change of gender. Ever since the change her tactics had changed when it came to fighting, the Amazons had helped as well. Ranma leapt for the ceiling and watched as her pop's face go white as Mr. Tendo tried to alter the course of his cut and had to twist the sword in his hand so that the flat of the blade smacked down on the back of Genma's shoulders and drew a little blood.  
  
Dropping down Ranma kicked Mr. Tendo in the head and sent him flying into a wall, flipped and came up under her father and uppercut him. It lifted the old man off the floor and left him open for kick that Ranma was more than willing to do. The kick to Genma's side sent him flying into the back yard and landed in the koi pond with a massive splash that swamped Ryoga and the still unconscious Akane. Ranma smirked as she saw Akane wake up in the arms of Ryoga's female form.  
  
"PERVERT!!" Akane screamed and slapped Ryoga.  
  
"Just like I thought, you were just going to use me just like you always have, weren't you pops? Did you sell me to the Tendo's like you did so many times before?"  
  
"Groan..."  
  
Ranma just shook her head and crossed her arms. "Would you believe I showed up here today to possibly make up with you and see how things could go between us? Nabiki here talked me into it, I figured that since you were my father that we could talk things out and have a little peace between us. Instead I find you freeloading off this family and end up getting attacked by you, an old friend of mine, and some girl I've never met."  
  
"Groph."  
  
"I'm out of here." Ranma said and stalked out of the yard, she would let them deal with all the damage Ryoga had caused.  
  
After several minutes she stepped walking and entered a park and made her way over to a fountain. She shrugged off her pack and rubbed her shoulders since she hadn't even had time to take the thing off before she was attacked. The sound of the fountain was a comforting sight and something she needed right then, she hadn't wanted to mention it to anyone, but she was feeling weird too. That fight had been like rubbing salt in an old wound, her abilities had been acting or feeling a little weird lately. Ranma looked at her hands and went over the fight in her mind, the attack by Ryoga had been a surprise to say the least but nothing she couldn't handle.   
  
She had expected it from her father, but not Mr. Tendo, had someone told the old farts that she would be there today? Would Nabiki had done something like that for some odd reason? Then there was that other girl, Akane Tendo, she had potential to be a great fighter, but it seemed that no one had ever bothered to teach her the true meaning of Martial Arts. The defense of others, the control of one's own emotions and body, and the ability to control every aspect of a fight.  
  
Instead the girl seemed to have a lot of strength, but no control over her actions. She was predictable and too set in one style that she had lost the skills that were the very core of Anything Goes. The unpredictability of the art, the ability to move from one style to another without the usual consequences this usually caused. Then there was that other thing that was bothering her, how she had reacted to the fight in the first place. She had nearly lost control of herself, a fatal mistake if it had happened.  
  
Ever since Jusenkyo she had known she was a lot more powerful than she had been, her Ki had grown almost exponentially for a few months there. Cologne and several other teachers had taught her how to focus all this power she had gained, but as time went on her control was slipping for some reason. She hadn't really noticed it till now though, what was happening to her? Why was she loosing her control over her new abilities, the ones she had thought were so firmly under her control? In the past she would learn a new technique and once she had it down it just became easier and easier to do until she mastered it completely and incorporated it into her style.   
  
Surprisingly enough her Ki abilities were not the problem, they were working perfectly, the power never once wavered in the slightest. It was her other powers she was worried about, her magic, what she had gained when she was first transformed into a girl, she clearly remembered drop kicking her idiot father clear out of the valley without much trouble. Later when took up being that stupid Sailor Sun identity her magical power had grown even more. The stuff was unpredictable at times and seemed to have a mind of it's own, there were times when she had used it in fights that it seemed to hesitate before anything happened. At the time she hadn't thought much out of it, but now she wondered if she should have paid more attention.  
  
"Ranma?"  
  
She turned and noticed Nabiki giving her a worried look, Ranma sighed and nodded at the girl. "Hi Nabiki, what's up?"  
  
"I'm sorry about what happened back there."  
  
"Don't worry about it, some good may have come out of it."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"I nearly lost control of one of my special abilities back there, one I had thought I had down. Instead I'm finding it harder and harder to control, I hadn't really noticed until I had to fight everyone at the compound there. I was just standing here trying to find a way to get that control back."  
  
"What have you come up with?"  
  
"Nothing yet, just going over what happened when I lost control of it. It only lasted a split second, but this has me worried about using the ability any time in the near future unless it is an emergency."  
  
"You could always talk to Dr. Tofu."  
  
"A Doctor, how would he be able to help with a magic control problem?"  
  
"Magic?!" Nabiki gasped, little dollar signs in her eyes.  
  
"Yeah, it was part of what I gained when I landed in that spring. I lost my manhood, but gained a lot of power in it's place. Power is a pretty cool thing to have, but sometimes the cost is more than what one is willing to pay. I would be willing to give all of this up to be a man again, but that is impossible at the moment."  
  
"Why is that Ranma?"  
  
"The pools of Jusenkyo are a curse, something that is given as a punishment. A curse can not be used to cure a curse, the damned things mix together to make the punishment worse."  
  
Nabiki paled as the thought of a half man, half woman that Ranma could have become if she were to jump into a spring of drowned man. "That's horrible!"  
  
"I know, I lost my manhood in that spring, I don't want to be even more of a freak as I am right now. I'm strange enough as it its."  
  
"I like you as you are Ranma and don't think you're all that strange, my family has always been a little strange too, you should see my father and Akane when they are being normal."  
  
"What was up with them anyway, I didn't do anything to even provoke any of those attacks. The one with Akane was, maybe a little warranted because of what I did to Ryoga, but she was jumping to all kinds of strange conclusions and attacked me. Why?"  
  
Nabiki sighed. "Akane has to fight off all those boys every morning, she has a dislike of anything male, and Kuno has only worked to make the situation much worse than it had to be. I don't know what she sees in Ryoga, but with most boys she gives them the cold shoulder, insults them, or beats them up when they show even the slightest interest in her. That only fuels the interest in her at school and around the area, she is also `Daddy's Little Princess' and gets pretty much what she wants."  
  
"Spoiled then." Ranma said as if that said it all, it wasn't even a question in her mind.  
  
"No, its more like she is over confident and out of control since Daddy won't curtail her actions. She was also a little mad at you because you were supposed to be her new fiancee, she is the heir to the Tendo School after all."  
  
"I don't like her attitude very much, she needs to be brought down a few pegs. Just like I was forced to do by a teacher of mine."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I grew up on the road Nabiki, battling my father day in and day out, from early morning to late at night. He was the only human contact I ever had for months on end as we traveled, I was rude, arrogant, and uneducated. The Amazons beat a good number of those things out of me and forced me to learn and think instead just reacting to the situation like I was used to doing with pop. It was a painful lesson, took me weeks to recover my pride and self confidence again, but when I did I was ten times more powerful since I could think my way through a battle instead of just reacting to it on an instinctive level."  
  
"You must have been quite a jock before the change."  
  
"Not really, a jock is someone that has to...okay that does apply to me." Ranma said and blushed. Nabiki just smirked and nodded.  
  
"Well lets get you over to Dr. Tofu..."  
  
"Nabiki, you do realize that it is a little early in the morning, I bet he hasn't even opened up just yet."  
  
"What...Oh, nope I never even considered the time, it isn't even seven is it? I guess we'll have to do it some other time then. Maybe later today or tomorrow."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"So what are you going to do now?"  
  
"Head back to Jubaan I guess, there is no reason to stay around here anymore."  
  
"I'm sorry." Nabiki said.  
  
"It's not your fault, I had hoped things would work out too."  
  
"I'll walk you to the bus station then and see you off."  
  
"Naw, I'll walk back and save some money."  
  
"What? It's over twenty miles between here and Jubaan Ranma, you can't walk that."  
  
"Its not that far and I need the time to think anyway, the walk will do me good."  
  
Nabiki pulled out a small note pad she always carried around with her and wrote out her name, address, and a couple of phone numbers. "Give me a call sometime Ranma. I'd like to help you out of this mess if I can."  
  
"You don't have to do that Nabiki." Ranma said hesitantly.  
  
"I insist, your father used me and I need to make sure he doesn't try and do that again without knowing the consequences of doing that again."  
  
"Don't do anything to bad to him."  
  
"Moi?" Nabiki smirked, this was ground she could understand. "Not to worry Ranma, it won't involve pain in any way, I'll hit him where it counts, in his wallet."  
  
"That I don't mind in the least. Good luck to you Nabiki." Ranma said and waved good by as she walked off down the street.   
  
**********  
  
Usagi screamed as she ran around the corner and slammed into someone and sent herself sprawling down on top of him. She heard and explosion of air and they both went down in a pile. Groaning she shook her head and opened her eyes and gaped as she looked into the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. Her heart stopped and she gasped as little flowers seemed to flow behind her, she blushed. She could see that it was a most handsome man with dark hair and from the feel of things had quite a build as well. She smiled and wished her heart would stop pounding, she wondered why she was feeling so much warmer all of a sudden  
  
"I...I'm s-sorry about that..." Usagi said as she struggled against her hormones, she blushed.  
  
"You meatball headed thug, who told you to run around like that and run into people!" The boy yelled. "I could have been hurt or my clothes ruined!"  
  
Usagi gasped and stared at the most beautiful man she had ever seen, her eyes filled with tears. "But...but..."  
  
"You're a menace to society, do you always plow into people to come to a stop?!"  
  
Usagi's lower lip started to tremble.  
  
"You're blonde too, don't you have any brains in that air headed mind of yours?!!"  
  
WHAM!!!   
  
"WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" Usagi wailed as she let go of the mallet and ran off in tears. On the ground Mamoru twitched under the mallet that had implanted his head and shoulders into the side walk, he wondered where all those insults had come from.  
  
He groaned and sat up slowly and noticed that ever girl in the area was glaring at him, about half of them were holding glowing mallets and he knew that his day had just gone from bad to worse. Then someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to see a red headed girl glaring at him. He stood up and held up his hands to keep her away, but didn't get a chance to say anything as she smirked at him.  
  
"Usagi may not be all that smart at some things, but she doesn't deserve to be insulted like that either."  
  
"It just popped out, I didn't mean any of it!" Mamoru stuttered out and backed up a step, this girl was giving him the creeps.  
  
"Right, that's why she ran off in tears?" Ranma said as she sat her back pack on the ground, stretched her shoulders, and cracked her knuckles.  
  
"No see here, we can talk this out..."  
  
"You made Usagi cry, for that you're going down fast and hard." Ranma smirked. "Take your punishment like a man."   
  
Mamoru noticed a number of the mallet holding girls nodding. He gulped and wondered if he should run for it.  
  
Ranma threw out a slow punch to see how he reacted and confirmed her thoughts that he had a little training when he blocked it easily. She moved in and picked up the pace of her punches and soon had him backing up. She had taken on Youma and even Jedite, this little peon was nothing compared to them. Then he started to block more effectively and she noticed that the confused look on his face had finally changed to concentration as she pushed him at ever faster and faster speeds.  
  
To Mamoru this was damned familiar and yet he couldn't ever remember meeting this girl before. Her moves were slighly familiar and yet far faster than anything he had ever encountered before. He knew instantly that he would not win against her, she was just to fast and her skill far above his own. He had to take her seriously or he would not only lose, but lose badly. With narrowed eyes he went form purely defensive to offensive in the blink of an eye.   
  
Like that worked, Ranma just snorted, blocked the clumsy punch, and kicked him in the stomach. She kicked him a little harder than she had intended though and he went flying back with a grunt and slammed into the wall of the arcade. Some of the stone actually cracked as he hit and blew the air out of his lungs. He watched as the girl relaxed slightly and glared at him, for a second he thought she was going to continue the attack, but she crossed her arms instead.  
  
"That will teach you to insult girls you don't even know, at least with me I'll at least live up to some of the insults." Ranma said with a grin.  
  
Mamoru just groaned and lay there.  
  
The red head walked over and picked up her pack again and glared at him for several seconds. "If I catch you insulting that girl again I'll break your legs boy, you watch yourself, or else." With that she turned and stalked away in the direction the blond had gone.  
  
"No problem." He muttered and groaned as the climbed back to his feet and staggered into the Arcade where his friend worked. He sighed in relief as he found an open booth and crawled in, that girl had only hit him once and yet everything in his body hurt like she had been pounding on him for hours. He had no intentions of tangling with that red head again, though he did owe the blond cutie an apology for the way he had reacted. He would have to keep an eye out for here the next time he was here.  
  
**********  
  
Outside the irate group of women broke up and headed their seperate ways, one of them was a rather tall young girl with long brown hair done up in a pony tail. She had liked the looks of the guy the instant she had seen him, then he had opened his mouth and been pounded by the blond. Then the red head had shown up and kicked the crap out of him in a matter of seconds. She had recognized the fighting style as something she had learned a little of from some friends she had met a couple of years back.   
  
Makoto Kino frowned and wondered what the chances of finding a practitioner of Anything Goes style at this time were. She took off after the girl she wanted to meet and soon caught sight of her bright red hair a couple of block ahead of her. That was the only reason she had noticed the girl, that hair made her stand out in a crowd, literally. She weaved her way through the crowded streets as fast as she could, but had to gape as the red head jumped onto a fence and used it as a short cut across the canal and over to a nearby street.  
  
It was the most amazing feet of skill and balance she had ever seen, but she hadn't studied under Natsumi and Kurumi for nothing. She hopped up on the fence and took a step and blushed as she realized that any pervert could look up her long skirt, then shrugged and hopped they were at least cute. It took several minutes of slow progress to get across, she wasn't surprised to see the red head waiting for her at the other end with a smirk on her face.  
  
"You should run along the fence, it helps you keep your balance a lot better than the slow and cautious rout." Ranma commented and took a fighting stance.  
  
Makoto sweat dropped and shook her head. "Don't want to fight, I wanted to talk to you."  
  
"You don't want to fight...I thought that was why you followed me?"  
  
"Nope, just wanted to talk."  
  
"About what?"  
  
"That fighting style you are using, is it Anything Goes?"  
  
Ranma nodded and smiled. "Yep, been training in it for over ten years now."  
  
"T-ten years?" Makoto gasped in shock.  
  
"I started as soon as I could walk and have been training ever since."  
  
"Well I know some of the style, but the two girls that taught me had to move on and I was wondering if you could help me finish training in the style."  
  
Ranma cocked her head. "You know some of the style? It is a pretty rare and dangerous art form and as far as I know there are only two families that practice the style. You said a girl taught you, did Akane Tendo teach you?"  
  
"Who?" Makoto said and shook her head. "It was a pair of wandering martial artists named Natsumi and Kurumi, but they had to move on before I could get much more than the basics down."  
  
"I've never heard of them." Ranma muttered to herself. She had thought she knew all the practitioners of her style and they could be counted on one hand. Ranma added the names to the small list of practitioners to look up some time later. "You want me to continue your training? Why?"  
  
"I really enjoyed the style and I saw what you did to that guy a little while ago."  
  
"I was just sticking up for Usagi's honor, that was nothing. As for training you, I'm not sure if I should."  
  
Makoto frowned and visibly went from hopeful to dejected. "Why?"  
  
"I've never actually taught anyone before and if I was to put you through what my father put me through, lets say you're just better off not knowing the style."  
  
"I'm willing to take the risks!" Makoto said stubbornly.  
  
Ranma kept her face stern as she glared at the tall girl. "Alright, for now I will train you, but you might not like some of the insane training you will have to go through."  
  
"I'm strong enough to survive it, I've survived those grueling mountainous training grounds."  
  
Ranma snorted. "Training grounds like those are for weaklings and barely teach you what you need to. Training under me will be REAL training and not that pansy stuff."  
  
"Kurumi said something along the same lines." Makoto muttered to herself.  
  
"She was correct, to be a real fighter you need to train all the time. None of this one or two hours a day crap, but all the time by making the simplest things into training. Walking along fences to help your balance and coordination, how to fall off a roof correctly, high jumps, endurance training, the whole nine yards." Ranma said with another smirk as Makoto gulped. "Well if I'm going to train you in anything, I need to know your name."  
  
"Makoto Kino."  
  
"Excellent, I'm Ranma Mazaki and I'm the best fighter in the world." Ranma bowed.  
  
Makoto giggled and bowed back, with a squawk she fell off the fence into the canal with a mighty splash, but surfaced a few seconds later to hear Ranma laughing at her. Makoto swam to the edge of the slow moving water and crawled out onto the sloped bank and glared at Ranma as she cart wheeled across the fence and jumped off. She landed right beside Makoto and helped her the rest of the way up the canal.  
  
"Do you know where the Hikawa Shrine is?"  
  
"Sure, were about a mile or so from it."  
  
"Meet me there Saturday afternoon when classes are out. Where a normal out fit and leave the Gi at home."  
  
"Leave the Gi?"  
  
"Where a jogging suit or shorts and a t-shirt, something comfortable and not very restrictive. A Gi is useless in a real fight and the called Anything Goes for a reason Makoto, you will be training in everything from shorts to nothing at all (if you make it that far)."  
  
"I've never done that before..."  
  
"Have you gotten in fights at school?"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
"Did you run home and change into a Gi to fight them?"  
  
"Of course not, that's stupid...OH!"  
  
"Exactly, you need to be able to fight in anything, anywhere, anytime."  
  
"I see."  
  
"Good, meet me at the shrine on Saturday."  
  
"Okay Ranma!" Makoto said, hugged her new friend and ran off happily, for once not in a bad mood and angry at the world.  
  
Ranma stood there in a shocked position, her long pig tail sticking nearly straight up. She hadn't expected her to do that she had found that it felt really good, what an unexpected thing. She staggered down the street trying to forget how Makoto's breasts had felt as they pressed against her own. Ranma wouldn't admit it, even under torture, but she had this silly little grin on her face...then she punched herself for being a pervert.   
  
**********  
  
Rei wandered into the Arcade to buy some ice cream to celebrate her getting an 'A' on a test at school. She was tired from having to study all night before and put up with that Nabiki character trying to get Ranma out of the temple for a few days. The peace and quiet had been almost to much to bare this morning, Ranma was always up with the dawn to practice. Out of habit of this she had woken up just as early this morning the sounds of her practice hadn't happened, Rei had actually missed it.   
  
Still, her test had beckoned and she spent the time this morning studying things all over again. She had only missed one question and it had been on something she hadn't had a chance to study because it was one of the those surprise questions that teachers tossed in from the class discussions. Sigh, she couldn't even remember talking about the stupid thing and yet it had been on the test. Just as she was about to enter the Arcade she noticed that section of the wall beside the door that was slightly caved in and cracked. If she didn't hadn't known better she would have thought that someone had impacted against the wall, but if that was so that meant that a Youma was around. The lack of other damage make her thing other wise so she shrugged it off and headed inside. Rei made her way over to the counter, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder, and was getting ready to order when she stopped and saw this tall, handsome, dark haired hunk sitting in a booth. He was finishing off a hamburger and to Rei he looked yummy, she smiled.  
  
As she got closer she noticed that the has several bruises forming on his arms, neck, and face. She was a skilled martial artist so she could detect the signs of a pretty good fight. Gliding over to the table she edged up to him when he wasn't paying attention and sat down across from him. He gasped and started to choke on his burger, but managed to control himself a few seconds later.   
  
"Hi!!" Rei said and smiled cutely at him.  
  
"Um...hello, can I help you?" He asked.  
  
"I'm Rei Hino and I was wondering what happened to you?"  
  
"Mamoru Chiba I made a mistake of judgment and had to pay the price so to speak."  
  
"Did you win?"  
  
"I'm afraid not, but I didn't want to hurt the girl that did it to me so..." Mamoru said.  
  
"A girl?" Rei gasped and wondered if this guy was some kind of handsome wimp.  
  
"Yeah, this little red headed girl, a little over five foot or so, long red braid, red shirt and black pants..."  
  
Rei gasped and narrowed her eyes, it couldn't be her, she had left this morning and wasn't expected back for several days. "What was her name?"  
  
"I have no idea, she attacked me and slammed me against the wall outside with a kick."  
  
"I saw the damage, but..."  
  
"That girl has some serious power at her disposal."  
  
"Why did this girl attack you?" Rei said as she decided to use the sympathy rout to his heart. She gazed at him while radiating concern and caring feelings.  
  
Mamoru shifted nervously. "Well this other girl tried to run me down and I got mad at her and called her some names. I didn't mean to say some of the stuff I did, but I was already having a bad day and then she came along."  
  
Rei nodded and silently wondered if this guy had actually deserved what had happened to him. There were not very many martial artists in the area with red hair in a long braid, Ranma was the only one she had ever seen or met. From the looks of things Ranma had only roughed him up for some reason so shrugged it off. She grabbed his hand and patted it while smiling at him. He gave her a nervous look, but she either ignored it or completely missed it. "It'll be alright."  
  
"Hey Mamoru, who is your cute friend?" Motaki asked as he came up and in his Arcade apron.  
  
"This is Rei, she was asking about the fight earlier."  
  
"What a hoot!" Motoki said and laughed. "Mamoru-baka here insulted a girl to tears and this smaller one comes out of now where and beats the crap out of him. He's been afraid to leave ever since!"  
  
Rei glanced at Mamoru, he winced and looked away. "Who was it that he insulted so bad?"  
  
"Usagi of all people, the most gentle and peaceful girl I've ever met..."  
  
"YOU INSULTED USAGI?!!" WHAM!! Rei yelled and malleted the boy through the floor as a bright red aura flared around her.  
  
"That's what Usagi did too, just before that cute red head showed up and beat him up." Motoki said happily.   
  
"Humph!" Rei said as she stomped out of the Arcade. "Jerk!!"  
  
Mamoru groaned and wondered when his life had turned to hell. His friend just laughed at him and wandered off, but not after telling him that he had to pay for the damage he had caused because of this. He lifted himself out of the damaged seat and flopped down again, the bruise on his face was even more noticeable now. It seemed that drowning his problems in food wasn't working, so he had to find some other way.  
  
Someone cleared their throat and he turned his head to see half a dozen angry women glaring at him. They all lifted their weapons and he tensed for a fraction of a second, then they charged and he leapt though the already damaged window. The girls followed and all of them soon vanished from sight, screaming insults, swear words, and other things that other random acts of violence.  
  
He wondered how one blonde ditz could have so many friends in one place.  
  
**********  
  
Night had fallen by the time Ranma found Usagi and she stayed out of sight doing something that the Amazons had taught her. Assessing the situation and determining the best way to approach it to be more specific, she had learned how to do this in combat and normal situations. The breeze was blowing slowly through the park and ruffled Usagi's hair as she leaned against a tree, the tears were still streaming down her face. Ranma could tell that the girl was in pain and kind of understood why, her reaction to her father's hatred was along the same lines. She had learned to control the tears while traveling after she left the Amazon village.   
  
Even now Ranma was on the verge of tears, but it had been several hours since she left that danmed dojo and her father. Those two fools had pretty much ruined any chance she might have given for a reconciliation now. For years she had wondered why her life was so harsh and cruel and never come up with an answer. The only way she had even survived the trip was to lock her real self away as she was beat to within an inch of her life day after day on the road. Indifference and uncaring had been comforting things in her life for years now, at least when it came to the old fool anyway. When she was younger she had cared for him, but that was gone now and only her hate for him was left. Jusenkyo had been the final straw, he had ruined her life with one simple hit and abandoned her for it because it went against what he thought was right.   
  
Then there was the fact that no matter how much she hated him, she wanted him in her life again. He was constant that had been there for years, the one she could take her anger out on when she needed to. Now that was gone and she was stuck in this stupid body that brought her self hatred to a new low. If she hadn't made those promises to the Amazons she would have been gone a long time ago and left the funeral expenses to the old man just to spite him and get in the last dig. Instead she had to live this new life and she admitted that there were some benefits to it and had some fun at times, but when would she lean to accept this stupid form? That was the most pressing question, because of it she had avoided making friends with the Scouts.   
  
Ranma nodded to herself, her pain would be lessoned if she was a little closer to the Scouts, they were a pretty close group of girls after all. She moved forward to see if Usagi needed anymore help, or just a good cry, as some of the Amazons had said. Usagi sniffled and wondered what she had done to deserve that kind of treatment. It had been a mistake, a bit of clumsiness that caused the problem, not her. Usagi drew her knees up to her chin and tried to fight off the pain she felt, she didn't even know why his words had hurt her so much. It should have been like dealing with her little brother, but instead she felt like he had broken some kind of trust or something. It was so weird.  
  
She jerked as she saw a flash of red and looked up into Ranma's eyes as she knelt down to look her over. "Are you alright Usagi?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Are you hurt, any broken bones or ripped clothing?" Ranma asked with a smile.  
  
Usagi smiled back and was silently shocked at her reaction, Ranma had the oddest effect on her at times. "I'm fine really, he just insulted me, so no big deal."  
  
"If his words hurt you Usagi then of course it's a big deal. I have dealt with jerks like him before and their always too full of themselves."  
  
"I don't understand...I thought you didn't like me." Usagi said, but it was so quiet that Ranma almost didn't hear it. Almost.  
  
She snorted and patted Usagi on the shoulder. "You and me are friends Usagi, I just treat you like I do all of my friends."  
  
"You insult all of your friends?!" Usagi gasped out and wasn't even able to understand what the girl in front of her was thinking.  
  
"I haven't told you much about myself have I?" Ranma asked as she scooted over and leaned against the tree next to Usagi.  
  
"None of us know much about you since you're always avoiding us for one reason or another."  
  
Ranma was quiet for several minutes as she thought about what Usagi was saying and she realized that even before she had arrived at Jusenkyo she had been quite alone in the world. Sure she had her father, but what had that gotten her? Nothing but pain and abandonment all because the old fool wouldn't live up to his responsibility. "Alright Usagi, I won't tell you everything, but some of it I suppose."  
  
Usagi nodded and sniffled back some tears.  
  
"I was taken from my mother when I was just five years old and forced, not asked, but forced to learn martial arts. I haven't seen her in over ten years now and don't even know what she looks like."  
  
"That's horrible."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "From right off the bat I was taught how to fight, I was kicked out of bed at dawn and spent an hour being shown this move or that. Then pop would proceed to pound on me until I was bruised and out cold, he called it endurance training."  
  
"That monster..." Usagi gasped.  
  
Ranma let off a bitter laugh that scared Usagi. "Oh that was nothing, he moved from that to throwing me off of two and three story buildings or nearby trees to teach me how to fall right. When I failed I got a beating and had to do it until I had it perfect, then when I got that right pops didn't congratulate me or offer me praise. No, he moved onto the next technique and pounded that into with a brutal efficiency." There were certain subjects that Ranma wanted to avoid and the stupid curse was one of them. "To make matters worse he decided that he didn't want a daughter and raised me to be a boy, from the way I dressed to the way I acted it was always be a man in everything. For a five year old kid I could barely understand what was going on, but I learned some harsh lessons on those first few months of the trip."  
  
"Li-Like what?"  
  
"The biggest one was that I had to learn what the old man was teaching me or he would break every bone in my body until I did so. The old man was always spouting off these sayings like 'the path of a true martial artist is fought with peril' and 'those with the greatest amount of honor shine like stars'. The first I believe, the second I think he stole from a movie."  
  
Usagi giggled a little and Ranma grinned a little more.  
  
"Then came my hardest lesson under the old man, I wasn't allowed to have friends of any kind. They would make me soft and weaken me, make me vulnerable and easy prey for when I was in a dangerous situation. I had this friend named Ukyo, he was a little kid that was learning the ways of his family's fighting style and business. He was my first friend on the road and I think he wanted to come with us on the trip, but the old man tricked me." Ranma slammed her fist into the tree and made it shake, some of the bark fell off as she pulled her hand back.  
  
"Ranma?"  
  
"Sorry Usagi, these are memories that I don't like to remember very much, but they will help you understand me a bit. Okay, I didn't find this out until later this year and that was completely by accident when I was making my way here to Jubaan. It turns out Ukyo was supposed to go on the trip with us, but pop abandoned him to die because he didn't want me to have a friend. Because it would make me soft and weak."  
  
This time Usagi burst into tears and latched onto Ranma. She really did like Usagi, but she was way to emotional for her tastes. "Did Luna explain to you about the Neko-Ken training?"  
  
"Only a little, she didn't get into anything very detailed." Usagi sniffled out.  
  
"I was seven when the old man put me through the Neko-Ken training, it was the ultimate betrayal of my trust in him. He promised that when I learned the technique I would be the most powerful martial artist in the world, and it worked, but not in the way he had thought it would. It drove me insane with fear, turning me into this cat like creature that was nearly impossible to kill or even hurt. I nearly killed the old man while in this state, but he managed to knock me out and get me back to normal, but forever afterward I was afraid of cats. That is until Ito showed up and locked the fear away as a type of cure for the technique."  
  
"No more please..." Usagi said.  
  
"Sure, you don't have to hear this if you don't want to, talk to Luna if you have to, I'm pretty sure that Ito has told Luna quite a bit about me." Ranma said sadly. She had been taught to try and find the best way to approach things, no one ever said she had picked up the skill. In battle she was flawless and perfect, but in social situations she was totally hopeless.  
  
"It's not that...I want to hear all about you Ranma. Luna says you're our Princess and you're so different from everyone else I know. You have a way of looking at the world that is totally unique. I will hear everything, but if this is just the beginning I fear what is going to happen next."  
  
"You don't have to Usagi..."  
  
"Yes I do, we all need to know this...can I tell the others?"  
  
Ranma considered it for several seconds before answering. "Sure, Rei knows a bit of it and Luna even more."  
  
"Thanks Ranma, that means a lot to me." Usagi said and hugged Ranma again.  
  
"Um...yeah." Ranma said and stepped away from the girl and moved over to a nearby bush and thrust her hand in. She pulled Luna out and smiled at the nervously sweating cat.   
  
"Ranma..." Luna said as a sweat drop formed on her head.  
  
"Hi Luna!" Ranma said happily. "You can tell the others about me, the information might come in handy."  
  
"Thanks..." She said sarcastically.  
  
Ranma pulled the cat close and whispered to it. "The curse is impossible to prove, leave that out. You heard what I said to Usagi, improvise when you need to, got it?"  
  
"Sure...Princess."  
  
"Right, then that's all I need for now." Ranma said and tossed the cat to Usagi with a grin. "Well then..."   
  
Ranma was interrupted as the sky wavered and a giant image of Jedite stood there glaring down at the city. He had his arms folded and looked supremely pissed off, there was a dark blue aura around him that seemed to light up his hate filled eyes. "SAILOR SCOUTS, I JEDITE OF THE DARK KINGDOM OFFER YOU A SIMPLE CHALLENGE. I WILL FIGHT YOU LATER TONIGHT AT THE AIRPORT, WINNER TAKES ALL AND THE LOSERS DIE. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME OR DON'T SHOW UP I WILL DESTROY THIS CITY." The giant image yelled and spread his arms where twin balls of fire flared to life, he threw them into the heart of the city where a blast very similar to a nuclear blast took place and let everything in its path a destroyed ruin. Then after several seconds Jedite snapped his fingers and the destruction vanished.  
  
"THAT WAS JUST AN ILLUSION, BUT IF YOU DON'T SHOW UP IT WILL BE A REALITY. I WILL BE WAITING." Jedite said and started to laugh evilly as he faded out and the sky returned to normal.  
  
"Oh...my..." Thump!  
  
Ranma spun around to see that Usagi had fainted and rolled her eyes at the girl, she may have been a Sailor Scout, but she sure was a fairly bad one. "Well that is a pretty typical reaction."  
  
"I'll say." Luna said with an exasperated tone of voice.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - I need to give a few thanks to my new prereaders who gave me a hand with these two new chapter.   
  
James Merritt  
Rezantis  
Sybersmilodon  
Stephen Price 


	8. Interlude

Notes - This an Interlude and is to be placed just after chapter 06 of the series, as the first arc of this story moves into it's final scenes I wanted to explain about some of Ranma's past. In this case her mother and what she has been doing for the last ten years. It isn't what one would expect and will completely alter how one looks at Nodoka Saotome. I received permission from White Phoenix to borrow an idea of his for this and have expanded upon the character quite a bit. As with all things there is more to one's life than what most let others see. ^_^  
  
Now on to the fun...  
  
**********  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 06 - Interlude  
By Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c)2002  
**********  
  
Time has always had a strange way of affecting people, sometimes they people just sit there watching it go by with barely a care, or they fight against it with ever once of strength they can muster, still others use it to their advantage. When it came to those in the Saotome family, it tended to take some of the odder paths, weather one was born a Saotome or married into the family time tensed to make their lives...interesting. Nodoka Saotome was no different, she had married into the family and found to her amazement that when one had the name Saotome they would always lead a strange existence.  
  
She had been born into a strange family herself, a devil hunting clan that were masters of the sword and led a pretty odd life for the first sixteen years of her life. Day and night she was trained in the ways of her can and instructed in the rules of hunting and killing demons. Then on her sixteenth birthday she had been told that an arranged marriage had been set up with a another family to gain their martial arts school and knowledge for their own. As a dutiful daughter she had meekly went along with it and was soon the wife of one Genma Saotome, one of the more promising martial artists of his generation. She remembered taking a little pride in that and rubbing her friends noses in it every time she had a chance. Now a days she knew better and wished she hadn't went around hurting people like that, after ten long years of being alone and without a family she had learned some lessons that would have broken anyone into a thousand pieces.  
  
The first year of her marriage had been pretty normal as she got to know her new husband and went about her 'wifely duties'. During this time she was most often alone in the average sized Saotome home while her husband was off with is friend and Master Hopposai training for one thing or another. She had spent her days cleaning the house or working out in the tiny dojo behind the house to perfect her sword skill, one of the things Genma encouraged her in. This hadn't been all that bad and she enjoyed the time alone to one degree or another, but eventually she had grown bored, very bored. It took a little doing, but she managed to get Genma's permission to go to finish school and go to collage since he was always away from home anyway. He had agreed and even helped her find the best place to do so, that was one of the few times in Nodoka's life that she still held dear about Genma, even after everything else had turned to dust.  
  
It was a year later during her senior year that she had learned that the wifely duties had produced an heir for them. Genma had been ecstatic and lavished her with his praise and joy, impatiently waiting for their child to be born. He hadn't left her side during the whole pregnancy, being an over protective and caring husband. When little Ranma was born she had proudly handed him over to her husband, they had both been too happy for words. If she had known what the future held she would have calmly beheaded him before they left the hospital, but she didn't so she had to learn the hard way.  
  
The first two years of Ranma's life were strange, even by her reckoning, and Nodoka had been confused by Genma's strange ways. He was always gone during this time, off with his friend or Hopposai doing one thing or another while she was left to car for her son and raise him on her own. Not that she minded, she loved him with all her heart. At the same time she continued to go to collage and learn of the world and expand her mind, her husband never even noticed since he was rarely home anymore, she sometimes wondered if he even remembered what his son looked like. Even when he was, for a short period of time, he spent more time with his son than his wife, showing him how to stand correctly, how to run and jump. He showed no interest in her anymore, as if she didn't matter anymore and that angered her. As his wife she was supposed to follow him without question since he was the man of the family, her educated mind told her to shove the a**hole out a window and go out to have a real life. She cursed the day she decided to be the dutiful wife and follow his lead.  
  
Things went from bad to worse as the next three years passed and she continued to raise their son alone. By the time Ranma turned five Genma had decided it was time to go away and train the boy in the family Marital Arts and came up with the idea of the seppuku contract, something Nodoka now knew to be a complete lie. She cared for Genma as his wife, but the respect he had been granted on their wedding day had long since turned to dust. His actions never included her in any way and she did not like being thrown to the side like some kind of useless brood mare.   
  
She had loudly refused to let the man take her son and tossed him out of the house and threatened to lop his head off if he tried it while shredding his gi off his overweight butt for good measure. Her sword skills were one of the few areas that her husband couldn't stand against anymore. Being alone had allowed her ample time to train with her all the sword masters in the clan, they disliked Genma as much as she did because he had failed to train their daughter in his martial arts school beyond a certain point. So when he pulled this she let loose five years of anger and frustration on the man for even thinking he could take her son away.  
  
Nodoka should have known better, really, but even a caring heart can be blind to the things they do not want to see, no matter how close one is to the truth. She still wasn't sure what happened, even after all this time, but when she had gotten up the next morning Ranma had been gone and the contract was laid out on the table in his place. A quick call to the police to get her son back had been ignored, her husband had already taken care of that rout by telling the police some story about her. As a woman her opinion did not hold as much respect as his did and they simply filed the report and moved on with other cases.  
  
To say she was angry was an understatement, by the end of that day she had destroyed and shattered a good portion of the house, all the dishes, and collapsed into a crying heap of depression. There was nothing left of the dojo except bits and pieces of wood scattered all over the grounds, she had accessed her devil hunting abilities for the first time that day and leveled to the ground in a single blast of hatred. Under that her anger still raged, and swore that she would get her son back from that monster even if it took her a life time. Over the next month she changed in ways that confused and delighted her friends, they had always thought her to much of a doormat for Genma, to dutiful for these modern times. Now she was doing things, growing up and learning about the world so that she could search for her family. To do that she needed money, so she needed a job, and so she needed an education and that became her world for the next four years. She didn't yet have the skills to track her husband, but she would once she graduated, the Art wasn't the only thing in the world and Genma would find that out the hard way.   
  
While going to school she hired a private investigator to track down her wayward husband, her divorce had been denied because Genma was the only one who could grant the separation, but quickly found out that they were nearly impossible to track down. They lived off the land and moved to a new town ever few day or weeks. The longest they stayed in one spot was when Ranma went to school and that had only been for a few months of intensive learning before they were off again. During this time Nodoka gained Masters Degree's in several fields as she ruthlessly absorbed information from everything she could get her hands on.  
  
It was during this time that she started to take trips around Japan, to old temples, ancient sights, and forgotten places that her husband had visited. There always seemed to be an ancient training ground nearby or a long forgotten martial arts school, like her husband she would stick around for a little while and learn some of what they had and add it to her revenge. What she learned in those places is unknown, even to most of her friends, but whatever it was she changed again. This time becoming extremely calm and eccentric in words and actions, she never seemed to sleep anymore either and just spent hours on end either reading old books or practicing her newest hobbies, Magic and weapons. Her family was a great help too as she increased her knowledge of the family art, she spent day and night stifling for the skill she needed for her revenge, and eventually she found it. She became known as Nippon Nodoka and she was a growing star in the Explorers Society, developing a reputation for being extremely smart and dangerous. She specialized in geography, ancient languages, archeology, and a dozen other subjects that would have even impressed Genma if he had been around.   
  
Graduation from collage gained her a job doing missions for the Explorers Society that sent her all over the world to do odd jobs and earned her 40% of all the collected money she brought back with her. This included the odd artifact here and there that she wanted to study or put to use while looking for her husband. She agreed and was soon using this as a way to search for her still missing son, but they had disappeared and the private investigator had given them up for a lost cause by now. Her husband had covered his tracks well and it frustrated Nodoka into heading down other paths in search of her son. She had come so close to them numerous occasions, but Genma knew how to cover his tracks better than the best thieves in the world. Even her magic wasn't working for some reason, she could find the location of lost temples and other oddities anywhere in the world, but finding her husband was nearly impossible. It was enough to make her cry.  
  
**********  
  
The library in Jubaan was one of the best equipped in all of Tokyo, there were only about five others that were bigger and better equipped to do the job that needed to be done. Ever since Ranma had returned from Nerima she had been depressed and unable to do much, her father's rejection of her had hurt, no matter what she had said to Nabiki at the time. She had spent ten years on the road with him, day after day of hard training and he had thrown it away just because of a stupid curse. Ito and Luna had tried to get her to cheer up, but Ranma just wouldn't listen to them. Instead she had thrown herself into her training to get her mind off the past and spent nearly seven hours a day practicing and developing new moves.   
  
In a desperate attempt to help Ranma, her Princess no matter what the girl said otherwise, Ito had began looking into Ranma's past and found something that might cheer her up. So they were at the library in the middle of downtown Jubaan to find some news papers. Ito had borrowed Mercury's computer and used it to search the internet for any information on the Saotome family. What had come back was a mix of good and bad things that took up nearly twenty gigs of space. There were literally thousands of reports on Genma and Ranma Saotome that were wanted for theft and other crimes that went back for over ten years. She had found no less than fifteen warrants for Genma's arrest in ten different countries, six of them had been just in Japan, several in China, and the rest in India, America, and Russia.  
  
She had to admit the man got around, looking into the warrants led to her finding other things as well that made her shudder. Ranma had been sold numerous times, to dozens of families and they had filed missing person reports on him. A number of them mentioned marriage proposals and the uniting of families. Then there had been the huge amount of debt that Ranma had acquired while on the road, it seemed he owed over a million yen to various restaurants and had been at it since he was at least five years old. How a five year old could run out of a place without paying was beyond her, but there it was. Ito had cross referenced that one just out of curiosity and found that the Police had just been filing them without looking at them. Genma was using Ranma's name and running out on the bill.  
  
Then she had stumbled across the good news, one Nodoka Saotome and the reward she had out for any information that might lead to her son or her husband. There was even a big explanation on her web site that detailed what had happened ten years ago. Ito had been further mystified to find out the kinds of degrees that Nodoka Saotome had achieved over the years and that she traveled all over the world as a professional Archeologist that specialized in magical and occult sites. A quick check with the Mercury computer and she was able to find that Nodoka had been in or around every spot in the world that her husband and son had visited, sometimes within days after a report had been filed.  
  
Ranma had once explained about the Seppuku pledge and what it meant, that was why she had never returned home before. How could a girl be a man among men? From what Ito had seen on the internet his mother didn't care about that and was actively looking for them. That was why they were at the library, Ito knew that Ranma was stubborn enough to refuse to go and see her mother so she needed to show Ranma the truth. That was why they were at the Jubaan National Library to use one of their computers for a little research and why Ito was in human form, dressed like any teenager.  
  
"Ito why are we here again, I've got practicing to do and I've nearly mastered those moves."   
  
"I want to show you something Ranma and since Ami is out of town today we need a computer."  
  
"This had better be good, I don't have time for useless stuff like this."  
  
"Oh hush up, you'll thank me for this."  
  
"Yeah, yeah sure I will." Ranma complained.  
  
Ito led the way to the computer labs and hoped her plan worked. Ranma needed something to cheer her up and finding her mother was a good start. She knew better than to try and surprise her on Ranma, she would have to decide what to do for herself.  
  
**********  
  
Five Years ago...  
  
She had a deep reddish brown hair that almost seemed to gleam as she stood in the sunlight at the edge of the cliff and took in the beauty of the waterfall in the distance. All around her the dense jungle teemed with life and the law of nature. She was wearing an odd outfit for a woman, a pair of rugged pants, weathered hiking boots, a loose shirt and vest combo that matched her perfectly, on her head was a fedora of all things (she really liked that movie they had made about some of her exploits a few years back), and a small pack that held all her supplies, tucked into this was a rather nasty looking sword that looked like it had seen a lot of action over the years. Around her waist was an equipment belt that held several pouched, a holstered gun on her left thigh, and a machete on her right. She liked to live off the land so she carried things with her that allowed for quick movement and fast catches.  
  
She was a Saotome, Nodoka Saotome and she had a mission to accomplish this day, one that paid her bills and earned her money. Looking over the map in her hand she determined where she was and walked along the cliff for several minutes looking around for something, she had been looking for nearly three hours now, but these things were not easily found. Every now and then she would stop and stomp on a rock and wait for several seconds before continuing on until she found another potential rock to stomp on. About an hour later she followed the pattern and nodded when she felt it drop down a few inches and a nearby tree truck opened up like door, it was hollow inside. A closer look revealed that someone had cut hand holds into the inside of the hollowed out trunk, they went downward as far as she could see. Considering the nearby cliff, she had a feeling that they went down for hundreds of feet.  
  
"That's far enough Nippon."  
  
She turned around to see a rather scruffy looking man in a white suit holding a gun at her, a 38 special if she recognized the design. He was also completely bald and had a snake tattoo on his head that seemed to coil around his head. It was rather gruesome looking the way the head of the snake was poised right between his eyes. "Hello Snake, what are you doing out here?"  
  
"You know damned well why I'm here Nippon."  
  
Nodoka tilted her head and smiled innocently at the man. "Really, I did research into this site Snake, there isn't anything of value here that your boss would want, is there?"  
  
"You know as well I do what is down there."  
  
"Oh please, do you mean that demon that was mentioned in those Agratarian Glyphs I found in Tibet and the favors it is supposed to grant to the one that can free it?"  
  
Snake sweat dropped and blinked a few times, Nippon Nodoka was rumored to be a little insane due to something that had happened to her family several years ago. She was dangerous, very dangerous if one read her wrong. "That and the scrolls, I'm here for both of them."  
  
"I can't allow that Snake, the demon is to dangerous to let free into this world. That is why it was confined in the first place. I'm here to make sure it doesn't get free, ever."  
  
"It can also grant one their greatest wish."  
  
"Now you're just being stubborn, demons don't grant wishes like that unless they can come out on top in someway and we both know you don't have what it takes."  
  
"It can't be helped Nippon, now step over to the edge of the cliff or I'll shoot yah." Snake said and waved his gun in the appropriate direction.  
  
"You're making a mistake Snake." Nodoka said calmly.  
  
"Yeah right!" Snake said and stepped over to ladder. "If you make one move I'll plug you where you stand."  
  
"Okay, okay, you talked me into it, I was only trying to help you out, but if you're going to be stubborn about this you can go first. Are you sure you wouldn't want some tea before you head down?" Nodoka tried, producing a cup of steaming tea from nowhere and sipping it as she watched him with innocent looking eyes.  
  
"HAH!!" Snake barked out and placed his foot on the first rung of the ladder. "You won't trick me like that, that power will be mine!"  
  
"Well good luck then."  
  
Holstering his gun, Snake knew Nippon Nodoka wouldn't harm him no matter what the situation, so started to make his way down into the pit below him. As soon as he was out of site, Nodoka walked over to the stone she had stepped on and gave it a good stomp. It clicked and rose back up, the door in the tree swung closed. She took a few minutes to finish off her tea before she decided to head back to where she had started out, Snake would be kept pretty busy now that he was descending into the cliff side, he had no clue what this place was and had fallen for that little diversion pretty easily. It had taken a little longer to find that trap than she had thought, but the old priests that had created the temple at the base of this cliff had been a little cruel to outsiders, who knew that the hand holds vanished when the door was shut? She figured Snake would meet up with the old priest before she could get down there through the city entrances, but he really shouldn't have pulled that gun on her, it was just plain rude.  
  
Pulling out her machete she headed into the thick jungle, cutting through the thick layer of plants as she moved. She thanked all the Kami that were listening that she had learned how to channel her Ki when she did, it allowed her to protect the machete's edge as she worked. Just a little concentration and it had an edge sharp enough to slice through trees and stone. According to her map she had about a mile to go before she reached the first of the markers she was looking for, one of the few trails that led into the lost city. The jungle was so thick that she figured it would be the best rout in, she didn't want to spend days hacking through dense jungle unless she really had to. This area had once been full of people and even supported a rather large city of several thousand. She wasn't sure what happened to them, but they had left records behind that had been lost over the centuries. She had found them, nearly intact because of a magical spell, deep under the temple at the bottom of the cliff.  
  
Nodoka grinned at her luck when she stumbled across the trail that wove its way through the trees, even after all this time the jungle hadn't been able to destroy all traces of the city, there were even a good number of the original paving stones left. A brisk walk down the trail led her to what she was looking for, the boundary marker of the old city. It was a pair of stone statues that towered above her, carved to look like a pair of dragons about ready to flame anyone that tried to pass beneath them. According to the scrolls she had read, they were magical and could actually breath fire on people that did not know the proper magical codes.   
  
Reaching into her pack she pulled out a scroll that she had found in the temple along with all the other information, held it up, and read the word written on the outside of the tie that kept it rolled up "Acura!" and it flashed into nothingness. The spell activated and she found her world changed, the moss and plant covered statues took on a different look and she could see that the magic was still active as the two statues observed her. She could feel the ancient weight of the city's magic as well, it had altered over the years into something more than just a guardian spell that animated the statues to kill those the city did not want inside its walls.   
  
The biggest surprise she had found was that this place was protected in some way, it protected itself from being found. The only reason she had come across the place was that she was researching something else at the time and noticed some inconsistencies in the satellite photographs, no two of them showed the same thing. Even then she had found that this place would not be found by easy means, oh no, it was a magical city from a long time ago and they were notorious for being hard to reach and even harder to get into and return from. The most famous example of this was the continent of Atlantis, it existed and was still in use today by beings that were better left unsaid.   
  
It was like some of the still functional magical places on Earth, like Eden and The Retreat, once found the reasons that they were still in use became obvious. Like Atlantis, this city was special, the only difference was that this place wasn't being used anymore and the magic was going to waste. It was kind of like a computer that was told to do one thing and kept on doing it until it ran out of materials, no matter what the consequences were. Her spell scroll was one of her more helpful items, it allowed her to see and read magic in all its forms. This city was covered in a thick growth of trees and plants that had almost completely hidden it from the world, the magic did the rest. So she figured she was probably one of the first visitors to show up here in a long time.   
  
She was lucky to have come across some information on places like this a while back, so she had a pretty good idea how to get through the gates without much trouble. Taking a different way into the city wouldn't have been a good idea either, the magic had made sure that the trees had grown in such away that getting through them would be problematic at best. Even the local animals were magically recruited by the city to make sure intruders didn't enter the city without going through the main entrance like she was. Lucky for her this was only along the main walls and not on the way she had used to get here, she figured that the magic had weakened over the years.  
  
~WHO ARE YOU?~ Came out of both Dragon Statues as their eyes lit up.  
  
"Nodoka Saotome, I'm an explorer and hunter." Nodoka said in surprise, she hadn't expected the communication spells to still work after all this time. Maybe she could talk her way though the gate, if not she would take other steps.  
  
~A THIEF~  
  
"Never, I don't take things unless they have been abandoned."  
  
~THE CITY IS OFF LIMITS TO OUTSIDERS~  
  
"Why, the jungle has reclaimed a good portion of it, I just want to study the people that used to live here and try to save some of the things that are still here."  
  
~THE CITY HAS BEEN DEAD SINCE THE GREAT WAR THAT DECIMATED THE PLANET 10,000 YEARS AGO. THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO SAVE~  
  
"The Silver Millennium War?"  
  
~YES~  
  
"Very little is left of that time, if your city is that old it makes saving it from destruction even more imperative."  
  
~I CAN NOT LET YOU INTO THE CITY~  
  
"Why?"  
  
~BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ON THE LIST~  
  
Nodoka face faulted. "Of course I'm not on the list, it's been centuries since anyone even lived in this city!"  
  
~THE LENGTH OF TIME DOES NOT MATTER~  
  
"How about if I give you a gift?"  
  
~DONATIONS ARE ONE WAY TO GET INTO THE CITY, FOOD, MAGICAL SPELLS, AND SPECIALTIES ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED~  
  
"Then I have a Specialty for you, let me get it out of my pack." Nodoka said and pulled a fist sized package out. It was wrapped in yellow paper and covered in writing. "I hate to give this up, but if it will get me into the city I don't mind all that much. It's just expensive and hard to get more of."  
  
~THE MORE EXPENSIVE THE BETTER~  
  
"Right." Nodoka said and stepped up to the statues and placed the item in a ready tray.  
  
~YOU MAY GO IN AND HAVE A NICE DAY~  
  
"Um...yeah, you too." Nodoka said.   
  
Guardians nod. "Second temple on the right, you can't miss it."  
  
Nodoka walks calmly on.  
  
One Guardian turns to the other after they've waited for her to pass beyond earshot. "Not much of a canidate. Not like the old days. Nasty accent. Where'd she grow up, Earth?"  
  
The other shrugs. "It's been ten thousand years since there's been an applicant. She'll get the post for sure, nasty accent and all. With no one there to interview she's the first body to show up."  
  
"So what's the post?"  
  
"Gotta fill from the top down. Head of household. Then she can interview others to try and fill us back up to full staff. The Princesses can always replace her if she doesn't work out. If the princesses can be found, that is."  
  
"I hope they get Maintenance Mages back up here. I've gotten vines in my ears."  
  
"First decent mage is here looking for a job in ten thousand years and the first thing you'd worry about is your ears."  
  
"Well what about you?"  
  
"I've cracked my left paw, and my claws don't work right."  
  
"Sigh."  
  
"Got that right."  
  
Both guardians fall silent.  
  
"Still," the first one moans. "A good polish...."  
  
"That'll be heaven. Now stick to your post."  
  
"Don't tell me you don't want a new coat of paint."  
  
"I'm cranky enough as it is. Don't make it worse. If we had a full  
staff today they'd be years getting to us. Now quit griping and keep alert for youma."  
  
Nodoka walked on and shook her head, that had been easier than she thought it would be. Who would have thought the magical protection of the city would still work after all this time? Oh well, it wasn't as if she minded doing it the hard way, it just made the job more fun for her if it went wrong and she was here for a purpose. There were secrets to be found her that would help her on her quest for Genma, his punishment would be long and painful. He would not get away with his crimes and this place was just one of many places she had visited to find different ways to accomplish this. The Foundation had also requested that she look into this and see what she could find so it was a win-win situation.   
  
She walked deeper into the city until she topped a hill overlooking a small valley filled with an even thicker jungle than what she had been moving through. Further proof of the magic that was trying to hide this place, she still wondered why the satellites could not 'see' any of the old Silver Millennium place still left on the planet. She had never read or heard of a spell that could do what these city wide ones did and getting past them was a pain in ass. She studied the area a little closer and used the magic from the scroll, here and there she could see portions of roofs and temples peaking out the thick undergrowth of the jungle.  
  
Because of the scroll spell she had cast earlier she could see that several of the small buildings were still magically protected in some way, the one she wanted to reach had to be the largest one or one of the smaller ones to either side of it. The spell was also supposed to make the city's magical defenses see her as a non threatening visitor, but after all this time who knew if it still worked like it should have. Pulling her blade again she chopped her way down into the valley and made her way toward the large one in the center of the valley. It would make a good place to start her search, it was always the large one in the center after all. She was a little put off by the fact that the thing seemed to rise nearly as high as some of the pyramids of Egypt and was just as imposing in its size, Nodoka shrugged, she was here for a reason and this wasn't going to stop her.  
  
She continued to hack her way to the large temple and where she thought the main entrance would be. That was one of the hardest things to find on these old temples, the entrance was always in some odd place or had some weird magical trigger to open. She hated shadow rock doors the most, waiting for the sun to get into the right place at the right time always tried her patience to no end. Since this was a Silver Millennium city she figured those were the last thing she needed to deal with, they usually had better imaginations than primitive dwarves or humans. Her magical sight was making things a lot clearer as she moved and she wasn't distracted by all the plants and trees that had nearly over run the entire valley. Looking at the temple was like looking at a thermograph, so it stood out in all it's glory, odd coloring not withstanding.   
  
Every few yards she would switch the blade to a different hand and continue on, using one of her family's sword kata to hone her speed and to practice while she cut her way there. Years of practice had made her quite good at doing this too, though she rarely had a chance to use her sword work skills on anything but plants and trees. With every swipe of the blade she imagined that Genma was in front of her and she cut off his limbs one at a time, an arm, a leg, the genitals, his inflated head, and things like that kept her occupied and working at peak performance for hours. Then she would start over again on the other hand, making sure to do everything instinctively and perfectly since there was no need to get sloppy.  
  
Because of the size of the place, it took her two hours to chop her way to the main staircase of the large temple. Even this was covered in vines and would make hiking up the steps more hazards than expected. She looked around a little more closely to see if there might have been a better way to get up there and soon spotted a discolored stone that was only noticeable because of the scroll spell. It was only about a third of the way up the stairs and set into the side, just like a door. As she thought, heading up the steps proved to be a pain and she had to be careful, but soon reached the strange stone. Curiously it was only about three foot by three foot and covered in odd glyphs and carvings that were slightly familiar.  
  
She frowned and looked the thing over a little more closely. "AH HA!! I knew I had seen this somewhere before, but what are these doing on the wrong continent? Oh well, it's not like it matters all that much, but who would have thought the Babylonians would have crossed such a large ocean to build this." Nodoka shrugged and noted it for future reference and snap kicked the edge of the stone with her steel toed boot. It moved inward several inches before grinding to a halt with just enough room for her to crawl into it. She hated crawl entrances, they were always full of dust and other kinds of nasties she didn't like to deal with.  
  
Reaching into sub space she pulled out a rather large flash light and got down on her hands and knees to go inside. The inside of the crawl space was surprisingly empty of dust, webs, and other kinds of things she would have thought to find. It was almost disappointing really, where was the adventure in this? She shrugged and continued on for about fifty feet and found that the tunnel stopped at a hole with a ladder that went up and down. She maneuvered herself to the edge and pulled out her map and looked it over. She had found this little device buried deep in the Amazon rain forest a couple years back and hadn't had the heart to part with such a useful item. With a flick of her wrist the parchment like paper snapped taunt and glowed.   
  
The map of the region that had been on it vanished and the layout of the temple slowly etched itself onto the paper. No matter where she was it would read the area and give her a good idea of where she was, there was even a 'you are here' symbol on the paper that moved when she did, it was quite helpful. It had always amused her to that some of her rivals thought that magic and such were such impossible things, she was always stumbling over things like this and adding them to her collection. As the map finished she was surprised to find that there was at least two levels of chambers below the temple, both looked to have been cut off from easy access by rather large walls of some kind. This didn't bother her all that much since she had experience with such thing like this.  
  
A quick jaunt down the ladder let her reach the next level and she found that there was sunlight reaching this underground level. A quick search revealed a series of holes in the ceiling that reached clear to the surface and let air and sunlight into the lower level, a series of polished metal disks were on the walls and reflecting light down into the lower parts of the level. Then there were three passages leading off in random directions and after consulting her map she chose one and she thanked the gods that they were high enough to let her walk normally. She had found enough small crawl spaces in her time to wonder it the Dwarves of legend still existed somewhere, or were out to get her. According to the map the passage she had picked led to the same chamber the other passages led to, except they were all maze like, leading off in different directions and odd rooms long before they reached the main room.   
  
She would have to check them out on her way out just to see if there was anything of value being hidden in any of the rooms, but she was here for a reason and she had a pretty good feeling what she was looking for was in the large room. The map was useful, but she constantly wished the thing would tell her what was in the places it told her about, but that was just a little to much to ask of the thing. Even more curious was the complete lack of traps and such, what was to keep people like her from just waltzing in and taking what they wanted? She had completely forgot about the two guardians, the plant covered temple that was nearly impossible to find, the magic she was detecting, and that she was holding a cheat sheet of a sorts.   
  
Eventually she reached a door, but stopped walking towards it when she was ten feet away. The floor was covered in carvings, as were the walls, the ceiling, and the door itself. To her it looked like someone had gone crazy with a chisel and ruined a perfectly good stone surface, but again she forgot to factor in that she had been doing this for years and was just a bit jaded. Reaching into her pack she pulled out a small rock she had been carrying around and tossed the thing in the middle of the floor before hopping back nervously.   
  
Nothing happened, no darts out of the walls, no pit trap, the ceiling looked like it might have quivered, but that was just a trick of the light. She sighed in disappointment, there weren't even any blades to cut her feet off at the ankles, how disappointing really. Reaching into subspace she pulled out a walking stick and tapped around the floor to see if the rock had just rolled wrong, the complete lack of reaction hurt her feelings. All this building know how and they couldn't even build a decent trap? She checked the map and it showed nothing built into the walls that might have been dangerous.  
  
"I came all this way for this?" She grumbled under her breath. The thing with the nice man Snake had given her some hope that this was going to be interesting. Oh well, not all lost temples were dangerous.  
  
The door, when she reached it was a work of beauty, a lot better   
up close than what she had thought it was. It was over fifteen foot tall and covered in cravings of leaves and plants so detailed that they looked like they were about to rustle in the wind. How the thing had gotten down here, nearly forty feet below ground was a pretty good mystery, but not what she had come her for. Glancing at the map again she wondered if she was to go back and take one of the other passages if her trip here would be more worth while. Adrenalin junkies can be a bit odd at times, really.  
  
Examination of the door revealed a leaf that stood out from the others, it also glowed with magic to her enhanced scenes. Maybe this would be something of interest she thought as she pulled it off the wall to look at it, as it came away it became a real leaf in her hand and carvings all lit up with power. Except one spot, just big enough to place the leaf in her hand, with a careless smile she tapped it into place and magic flared with light. All around her the carvings turned real and a passage way opened up in front of her, all she had to do was step through the plants and continue on. She had always thought that ancient magic users had an eye for beauty that modern artist just lacked.  
  
"Well that was neat, now what is on the other side." She mumbled to herself and stepped through into a long rough stone corridor and frowned. This room was empty too, what the hell was going on here? Sure there were plants, but they only lasted for the first dozen yards or so before they dwindled out. The corridor went on for as far as she could see and there were torches ever ten feet or so. This was a little different than what she had expected, never in her carrier had she entered a temple or old ruin and find evidence that it was still being used like this. Her magic senses were telling her that the torches were real and not magical illusions.   
  
She moved down the hall slowly, her hand on her sword and ready to pull it at a moments noticed. Something didn't feel right about this place and she couldn't place what it was, this was just plain weird. This wasn't a simple exploration anymore, it was quickly becoming some thing more dangerous. She clenched her hand that had the device strapped to it and made sure the energy contained by the device was still active and available. Her danger sense was trying to warn her of something but she could see no obvious signs of an attack. Then she looked ahead and saw that the tunnel was beginning to curve.  
  
Checking the map proved worthless, it was completely blank and showed nothing of use. She stashed it back in her pack and pulled her sword out, this was getting a little scary, the torches were the worst part. Who had put them there and kept them burning? She moved around the curve and frowned as it revealed a strange sight, the entrance to a larger room, it went in about ten feet and turned into a marble bared prison that allowed her to see out into the larger room, but with no way to enter it. The strangest part was that it looked like something out of that Tomb Raider video game, the largest room looked like had once been very well set up, but now there were signs of a fire and toppled columns all over the place.  
  
From her vantage point she could look down into the room and to the floor about a hundred feet down. Other than a couple of spots, the lower levels of the room were full of water. She couldn't figure out where the light was coming from either, but the whole place was lit up in some way. Then she noticed dozens of mirrored circles along the walls giving off a a faint glow and she realized that they were bouncing light around the room from some central source. Now how was she supposed to get down there without causing any problems or alerting any potential threats?  
  
She wasn't sure, but she had just spotted something that made her blood run cold. The entrance to a room with a door covered in spell carvings. They were all over the door and the walls around it, even in the floor at the base of the door. Something was being held in there and it was very powerful, that many wards could keep a god imprisoned for some years if they were done right. Imprisoned...she was either in or near the temple at the base of the cliff. That must be the demon's prison that she was going to look into later on. This wasn't good, if she was caught here she would be killed by the priests, they did not like women very much and had been barely civil the last time she talked to them.  
  
If this was the temple at the base of the cliff, how had she ended up here and why wasn't her map working? She didn't know, but sticking around her for to long was a bad idea in the extreme, so she turned around and hiked back up the corridor until she got back to where the plants started again. The lack of guards was weird, if an entrance to the cave where the demon was held existed the priests would have posted guards, but where were they? If they were here why hadn't they stopped her from getting within seeing distance of the prison? Could what she was looking for be hidden in some way?  
  
She searched through the bushes for several minutes, carefully moving through them until she found an opening hidden in the shadows of a couple of trees that led off to the side of the main corridor. A quick check of the map showed that it still wasn't working, so she decided that it was useless on this side of that magic door. This hidden path was in very bad condition, the stone was cracked and filled with dust from ages of disuse and was completely dark. She grabbed a flashlight out of her pack and lit the thing up. It only went in for about twenty feed or so and ended at a door that looked like it was wedged into the stone instead of mounted in any way.  
  
It was about seven foot height and made of an ancient wood that was riddled with termite holes and barely staying intact. Unfortunately none of the holes were large enough for her to see through. She had a feeling that whatever was beyond this door was important in someway, her eyes narrowed and she lasted out at the door with a kick. Surprisingly it held under the blow, though it did crack a bit. She shoulder slammed the door a couple of times and squawked in surprise when it shattered and she fell into the room. Unfortunately there wasn't a floor on the other side and she found herself in free fall.  
  
"Genma this all your fault!!" Nodoka yelled as she envisioned her death on the stalagmites or hard rock below. A quick prayer flashed trough her mind, but before she could even say it she landed back first into water, deep water. Her surprise is almost total as she flips around and orientates herself and spots her flashlight sinking below her and kicks for the surface. he surfaces gasping for air and spots a small beach a little ways off and makes her way to shore. This has been one weird day for her, but she wasn't about to make it this far to just give up yet. She staggered to her feet and noticed that she was in a large natural cave. Stalagmites and stalactites were covering most of the cave, but there was a small cleared path making it's way right down the center of the cave with light at the end. Even stranger was how hot it was in the cave, over a hundred at least and rising. Her clothes were already well on their way to being dry.   
  
Looking off to the side she spotted a pile of old torches, all they needed was a bit of oil and she would be set. To bad she didn't have any on her, so she decided to sacrifice a shirt and wrapped it around the head and lit it with a lighter. As she moved deeper into the cave she noted that it was becoming more and more notable that humans had been her before as the passage way was cleared of obstructions. She even rounded a small turn to spot several skeletons dressed in burnt priest's robes wearing rusting armor and weopons. She was tempted to take a closer look and see if there was anything she could salvage to take back to the Foundation, but decided to see what else was down here before doing that.   
  
The heat was rising too, she had sweat dripping down her face and ruining her clothes as she drew closer to the source of the light. Then she stepped through the opening and gasped when she found herself in a lava toob, about twenty feet from an open, bubbling vent of lava. The heat was almost unbearable at this range, but she had learned a few tricks over the years and wasn't about to let that stop her from reaching her goal, not when she was this close. She looked up and spotted what she was looking for about twenty feet up, suspended right above the lava with chains was a stone throne with a skeleton sitting on it dressed in robes and a crown, at its feet was a chest.  
  
Nodoka smirked as she spotted it, the goal of her little quest, it was just as she had imagined it and if it contained what she though it did, then all this trouble will have been worth it. The Foundation had found information on this place several months ago, but it was so hard to reach and with the number of leaks they had among the higher ups, that she was asked to take this one on so that the items in that chest could be retrieved. She was one of three people on the planet that knew about anything about the worlds true origins from the Silver Millennium. This place had degraded over the centuries, but not to the point that the magic used to create some of this stuff had failed. She could feel the weaves of magic in the very air and knew that it was the only thing holding back the Lava from turning this place into a death trap.   
  
Just touching the chest or even the suspended throne could very well set off the trap and destroy everything just to keep it out of her hands. Curiously a lot of the work in this cave looked to new to have been in the Silver Millennium, it couldn't have been more than two or three hundred years old. No where close to the ten thousand years or more that this place should have looked. Her magic sight wasn't helping either, everything in the toob glowed of magic, even the lava. She clenched her fist and activated the device on her hand again and she flared with light.  
  
When it cleared everything about her had changed, her hair was loose and hanging down in a loose braid. Her clothing had altered into a white and red pant suit with a yin/yang symbol on the chest and she was surrounded by a humming aura of power. Her back pack was gone, but her sword had stayed, but altered itself into a nasty looking weapon. She looked up at the throne and decided that she would take a chance, getting to safety in this form would be a lot easier than her normal form. It was stronger, faster, and more powerful than a normal human form. She was called Nippon Nodoka the Devil Hunter for a reason and this whole mountain reeked of Demonic taint now that she had transformed.   
  
That monster wasn't about to get out of this placed alive now that she was in a position to take it out permanently. She crouched and jumped right up to the throne and landed on the edge as carefully as she could. A sigh escaped her when nothing happened, that meant this trap wasn't going go off with her just standing on it. She stepped over to the skeleton and looked it over and noted that it was in pretty good condition for something that was supposed to be 10,000 years old. Something about it was making her nervous and she had seen enough dead bodies over the last few years to know she wasn't squeamish in anyway.  
  
"Hiyah Babe!"  
  
Nodoka spun around and hissed as she spotted someone she hadn't ever wanted to see any time soon. Gendo Saotome, Genma's brother and one of the reasons she had been prevented from finding her son time and again. Gendo had government contacts that would do almost anything for him for the right amount of money. "What are you doing here you Bastard?!"  
  
"That hurts you know." Gendo said with a smirk. "You are family after all, you are supposed to share with all of us."  
  
"Fuck off you asshole!"  
  
"Temper control Nodoka-chan, you don't want me to make it so that you can never get near your son again, so you?"  
  
Nodoka growled and backed off, Genma's brother had all the brains in the family and none of the skill. Gendo was a ruthless businessman and someone that even she didn't want to deal with, he could do things to make her life a living hell and get away with it. "I will get him back no matter what you do Gendo."  
  
Gendo smirked and tsked a few times. "Not until my brother is finished training the boy to be the prefect weapon, dear sister-in-law."  
  
"I will not let him get away with it, you hear me asshole."  
  
"You're pushing things, sis." Gendo said with an evil smile. "Here is a little present from me to you for your insolence No-chan." His hand flared with red light and Nodoka gasped as she realized that he was casting a spell.   
  
"Since when have you been able to do magic?!!" She screamed.  
  
Gendo's eyes lit up as his aura turned pure black. "Why for years No-chan, for years, even Genma doesn't suspect that I can do this stuff. All he cares about is training his son and he is so very susceptible to my spells."  
  
"Whatever you're doing it won't work!"  
  
"I know, but it will slow you down and distract you."  
  
Suddenly arms wrapped themselves around Nodoka and grabbed her breasts and gave them a good squeeze. "WILL YOU LOOK AT THE HOOTERS ON THIS ONE?!"  
  
Nodoka screamed in shock and looked down to see the bony hands and arms encircling her. She had just enough time to register that it was the skeleton before she was thrown off the suspended throne by a cackling undead skeleton before she hit the ground just outside the lava pool. "Shit!"  
  
"HOW'S ABOUT A KISS SWEET THING?!" It yelled.  
  
Gendo was about twenty feet away rolling on the ground laughing his head off. "Have No-chan, there are more on the way!" He yelled to her as he gestured to the throne and the chest vanished in a puff of smoke. Gendo smirked in victory and vanished in a flare of light, but not before casting one more spell and laughing some more.  
  
"No!!"   
  
Several more skeletons poured out of the entrance she had entered the toob from and looked around lecherously. For skeletons it was quite an accomplishment too, they looked around and spotted her being held by the other one and high fived each other.   
  
"BOOGA BOOGA AGHHHHH!!!!"  
  
"WOAH!!"  
  
"I'M IN LOVE!"  
  
"BABY GOT BACK!!"  
  
"GET A LOAD OF THOSE TITTIES BOYS?!!"  
  
"MMMMmmm...SO NICE!"   
  
"HEY BOYS, LETS FIND OUT IF SHE HAD MORE BOUNCE TO THE OUNCE!!"  
  
Gendo I'm going to kill you for doing this to me!" Nodoka yelled and flared with bright red power and blew the one on top of her to dust.  
  
The skeletons dog piled her before she could free her sword, they were grabbing her in places that hadn't been touched in years. Her eyesight went red with anger and she grabbed the one that had latched itself to her back by its head and gave a yank. Unfortunately only the head came off, its hand continued to explore around her shirt. "YEEEHAAAA...GIDDY UP GIRLLY!!" The skull yelled from her hand and shook around a little.  
  
"I LIKE HER, SHE'S GOT LOTS OF SPIRIT FOR A HUMAN!"  
  
"AND SHE'S PACKED IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES!!"  
  
The floor crumbled around her feet and yet another one came out and grabbed her ankles with a girlish giggle. It ripped her pants away and dragged them through the floor before she could do anything about. "That's it, you're all going to get it now!" Nodoka yelled.  
  
"CHECK IT OUT, SHE'S NOT WEARING ANY..." One skeleton yelled just as it was crushed to dust by Nodoka's foot.  
  
"SHE'S OPEN AND READY, IT'S TIME FOR A SMORGASBORD BOYS."  
  
"SHE'S HANGING OUT ALL OVER THE PLACE AND IT'S THE GREATEST THING I'VE SEEN SINCE MARILYN MONROE!!"  
  
"HOOCHA!!" Says one skeleton as it's eye sockets take on a look of awe and lust.  
  
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Screams Nodoka as she reaches for the skeleton and spend the next several minutes pounding and crushing the perverted things into dust, but even that isn't enough.   
  
"YOU CAN'T GET ALL OF US MISS TIGHT BUNS AND I WANT A TASTE OF THE NECTAR OF THE GODS!!"  
  
Nodoka goes berserk with rage and the rest of the skeletons are no match for her in this state. She comes back to her senses a few minutes later, standing amidst the destruction of all the bones, her clothing had been completely ripped off her body. If it had been possible the skeleton looking up from floor at her bare behind would have been drooling, it was the greatest sight of it's unlife. Then light flared around the woman and she was clothed in her hiking outfit again and it sighed in disappointment, but it did it too loud and it's last sight was the bottom of Nodoka's foot and anger filled eyes as she crushed it.  
  
Her aura was still flaring as the crushed the late arriving skeletons and made her way out of the area, that bastard Gendo was going to pay for this. He had embarrassed her for the last time and she wasn't going to allow it anymore, it was time she wised up and started to take certain precautions. Over the last few years he had prevented her from obtaining certain things of magic, while at other times he never bothered to show up. She wasn't sure what his goals were yet, but him and Genma were working together for different reasons and keeping her son from her. That was going to change, her tactics had to be changed if she was going to continue to look for her son without Gendo stepping on her toes every time she got to close.   
  
She flared with light again and her Devil Hunter garb returned, it looked like it had never even been ripped and shredded from her body. At the small beach she looked up and spotted the spot where the door had shattered on her about a hundred feet up. She used a typical triangle jump to make her way up to the hole in a few seconds and landed on the edge silently. She was tempted to go and kill that Demon, but her powers were nearly used up after having to use them to kill the skeletons. The transformation could only be maintained for so long before it ran out of power. It was the only drawback to her being a Devil Hunter.   
  
The thing was locked away anyway so she could always come back later and take care of it and those priests had done such a good job of holding it so far. A few more years wouldn't hurt and she could always stop it if it did free itself she reasoned to herself as she made her way out of the magical space and back into the temple maze and out into the city. Because of Gendo this whole trip had been a complete waste of time and money, now she had nothing to take back with her, unless...stopped at the bottom of the tall stair case and smirked. She had to justify this expedition to The Foundation, even if it was something small. She knew just the thing and headed for one of the smaller temples nearby. Things were beginning to look up after all, this was a city after all and there was lots more to explore.   
  
Gendo Saotome wasn't about to beat her this easy, she had spent to many years doing this to let him get the upper hand now. Every site she had explored that had anything to do with the Silver Millennium had unearthed the most incredible things. The main temple had proven to be a bust, so one of the smaller ones could hold something of use for her to take back. It was the perfect plan and it couldn't fail her now that the competition thought she was out of the way because of those perverted skeletons.  
  
At least they had been manly skeletons. ^_^  
  
**********  
  
Ranma was nearly hyperventilating when she finished reading all the information on the internet site that her mom had set up, just to find her son. She felt horrible now and hung her head, why had she sent that stupid post card? Ranma knew the answer, it was that damned contract that she had found, that's what. To think that her mother had been looking for her all this time, Ranma wanted to smash something and the panda came to mind. Ito had brought up the site and allowed her to read the amazing thing for the last few hours and explained about the massive accrued debt that had Genma had left for her if she was to ever take up the Saotome name again.  
  
This was the final piece of information Ranma needed, she had to cut all ties to the Saotome family, anything that was even connected to Genma Saotome. Ranma also considered contacting her mother, but she had no idea how the woman would even react to her son turned daughter. She was pretty well known in the Explorer's Society and looked to have spent years chasing after her husband to get her son back. If only the curse wasn't permanent, she would have gone back to her mother in an instant. That wasn't the case though, he was a girl now and one with a responsibility that she didn't really want, but had to do it anyway.  
  
"Ranma?" Ito asked.  
  
"If only I wasn't stuck like this Ito, I want to be a man again more than anything else in the world."  
  
"You're my Princess Ranma, I know you hate that name, but you are and I will do all that I can to help you."  
  
"She wants her son back, not this..." Ranma gestured to her chest.  
  
"She seems like a smart person Ranma, she might know how to help you or someone that could."  
  
"I have no way of even proving to her I'm her son Ito, I don't remember anything of those first few years except a tone of voice and some feelings."  
  
"Things will work out Ranma."  
  
"Right." Ranma said and got up to leave.  
  
"What would you like to do now Ranma?"  
  
"I need to think."  
  
**********  
  
The end of Princess of the Mon Interlude 01 


	9. Chapter 07

Notes - The very first thing I have to do before we get started is to bow down and apologies for the amount of time it took to get this out. Nearly two months, way to long for a fan fic chapter. My excuse is Writers Block, I've got a major case of the dreaded disease and it has affected every thing I've tried to do over the last little while. All of my stories are suffering because of it.   
  
**********  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 07  
By Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c)2002  
**********  
  
The old man sat in the middle of the stone floor with a tiny amount of his aura flaring around him to provide light, weak didn't even come close to describing how he felt just then. He had been in here for some time, how long he didn't know, but it had been several years at least. Luckily he had learned long ago how to supplement his energies through several different ways, he could go months without real food, though every now and then he did have to eat something. What was even worse was that he spent more time asleep than he did awake, his energies were so low that he barely had enough to get by at times. He looked around and lashed out to grab one of the rats that tended to explore the interior of the cave every week or so, he held it in his hand and cooked it with his Ki and ate the thing.  
  
Those two fools that had sealed him in here had taken steps that even surprised him, because of his 'habits' Hopposai had developed a weakness he hadn't considered when he began supplementing his Ki so many years before. They hadn't even known about it when they sealed him in here, just a set of lucky guesses that proved to be his undoing. They had spent the day running though the local villages and getting supplies in the usual way, Hopposai had always believed in the 'why pay when it's just sitting there' style of reprovisioning and made sure his students knew all the different ways to do so.  
  
When he got out of here he would take steps to make sure something like this could never happen again, but to do so would take some time. His downfall was because of his fear of dying, everything he did was to make sure he wouldn't kick the bucket when he hadn't even had a chance to train an heir, those two fools had been his third try at an heir and they had failed miserably. They had such promise in the beginning, tons of untapped Ki potential and the kind of determined will that suited his school to a tee. Hopposai sighed, it was his own fault for turning them into what they were, he knew that and couldn't really blame them for doing this to him. It wasn't like he hadn't treated them any better than slaves at times or intentionally pushed them over the edge of madness to accomplish his goals.  
  
He tossed the rat bones across the cave into the small pile that had collected over time, as it landed he heard a thunder clap and knew it was raining again, the bone bounced and hit the large stone that sealed his cave and was vaporized when it touched the spirit ward that was wrapped around it. In his weakened condition there was no way he could even touch the stone let along move it. Those idiots has sealed him in here like an evil spirit and much to Hopposai's surprise the damned thing actually worked, one little touch and he would be drained of all his energy and killed a few seconds later. He could feel the thing's power over him whenever he even considered trying to get out by other means.   
  
Those two idiot had made a mistake that had taken him some time to figure out, though it was mostly just guesses. They had gotten him drunk as gourd, tied him in a barrel of hooch and tossed him and several of the other barrel of alcohol into the cave with a couple stick so of dynamite. Even that hadn't been enough to really take him out for more than a few minutes, that that damned spirit ward had been his downfall. He hadn't even considered what it was when he woke up in a pile of rubble and nearly leveled even more of the cave in his rage. Then he had tapped the boulder to shatter it and found himself in a state of shock some days later when he came to with barely enough energy to think.   
  
Three hundred years, that was how long he had been alive and he felt ever minute of his great age as he sat there gazing balefully at the ward that kept him imprisoned. His Ki wasn't truly his anymore, more like a mix of the hundreds of different beings that he had drained a little from over the years. In the eyes of the spirits that made him into a kind of vampire, though he didn't consider himself to be one, those wards proved him wrong time and again. Thunder rumbled again and he started in surprise as a few rocks were shaken loose and rained down on his head.  
  
"That must be one hell of a storm out there if it's producing thunder that strong." He mumbled.  
  
Then he looks up at the roof of the cave as he felt the build up of power high above him in the clouds, his eyes narrowed. Because of the ward he couldn't reach out with his aura to 'see' what was going on, but he could feel it inside the cave. Something was about to change and he knew it involved it him in someway, a grin spread over his face. His eyes light up with power as his aura flares out to fill the cave, he couldn't alter things outside the cave, but mother nature's power was a thousand times more powerful than any ward and he could play off that little weakness. There was a little trick he had picked up about fifty years back, it hadn't been all that useful in a fight because it took to long to set up and just the right conditions, but it helped with perfecting aura control and building one's power.   
  
His aura seeped into the rocks and he started to concentrate even harder as he gave the rock around him a bit of a push. Over the years he had been witness to several morons fighting battles in the rain with live steel, for some reason some of these idiots had been struck by a bolt of lightning and slagged their precious swords. This is what had given him the idea for this technique, but it's slow build up and hard to control shaping made it a pain in the ass. Outside the cave the rain washed across the front of the cave and the rock seemed to develop a light mist that clung to rocks, it spread out and seemed to shape itself around the ward stone. Sweat dripped off Hopposai's brow, if this didn't work he would be stuck here for a several more years before the could try something like this again.  
  
The ward flared with ethereal energy and an evil grin spread across Hopposai's face as the felt the energy high up in the clouds sync with his own, he clenched his fist and flared up even brighter. It was with almost a sigh that he felt the lightning launch itself out of the clouds, the wards were supposed to protect against even natural disasters, but Hopposai knew he had succeeded in his goal a few seconds later as the bolt fell of the sky and struck the ward. The stone exploded inward and smacked him against the back of the cave, but that wasn't enough to keep him down as he crawled out of the cave and breathed the sweet taste of freedom for the first time in years.  
  
"Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!" Hopposai laughed evilly as he staggered to his feet and raised his hands to the sky in triumph.  
  
Only to be struck down by his own trick as another lightning bolt hit him in the head and sent him back down, but a few seconds later Hopposai was back up and staggering down the side of the mountain in glee, dodging lightning bolts all the way.   
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"  
  
**********  
  
Screams of rage filled the night air and startled little kids out of their sleep and set off the family dogs. A shadow like blur laughed to itself as it ran through the shadows with what appeared to be a huge bag on it's back. It looked behind itself and cackles as it lands on a fence to watch some of the advancing hord of angry females close in on him with all manor of weapons, from brooms, to small hand held rocket launchers, baring down on it and reaches into it's bag. He pulls out what look like a pair of silky blue panties and pats his face with them for a second before he puts them back in his jacket and bounds forward into the pack of angry females. He cackles happily as he catches the surprised girl off guard by diving under her broom attack, rebounding off the pavment, and pressing his face right beween her ample breasts. He had relived her of her bra some time ago and was reaping the rewards of that act now.   
  
"Pervert!!"  
  
"They're so firm!!!"  
  
"Kill him!"  
  
"So BOUNCY!!"  
  
"Maim him!"  
  
"SO FULLY PACKED!!  
  
"I'll eviscerate him!!"  
  
"HOOCHA!!!"  
  
"Die!!  
  
"So many pretty ladies!!"  
  
"Aghaaaaaaaaaa!!"  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAH!!"  
  
And so Hopposai spent another eventful night playing with assed by a group of guys to show off their charms and well endowed assets. This was the life, the thrill of the hunt and all the noises the girls made as the night went on made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. There were nights that he hours on end doing this and laughing the whole time, he loved his life.   
  
He looked up when he passed a school clock tower and noted that it was getting a little late. So he hopped up on roof where none of the lovelies could get him, waved goodbye and bounced off. The girls slid to a halt and glared at the bane of their existence and gasped for air as he disappeared. They all turned on their heals and walked off, just as Hopposai reappeared and gave them all a goodbye hug for good luck and finished stripping them of garters, slips, and pantyhose cackling the whole time. They screeched in rage swarmed over him like a pack of rabid wolves, but the old man was much to fast for them and got away without being hit, that was a good night!  
  
Ten minutes later Hopposai landed on top of a house in the middle of the resident district and sat down, leaning against one of the upraised portions of the roof. He sat his sack down and pulled out a pipe, filled it with tobacco and lit it with a burst of Ki energy from the tip of his finger. He spent several minutes relaxing and thinking about what he was going to do from here on out. It had only been a couple of weeks since he managed to get free of that damned cave and make his way into the nearest city for a quick recharge. Those two students of his had hurt him, but he wasn't all that mad at them since he had been using them as his own personal slaves for some time before they rebelled and this hadn't been the first time, just the most successful.  
  
He would get them back, but they wouldn't know it until he was ready to strike. The only problem was how? Should he use a demon or some kind of rare herb mixed in with their food? There were so many possibilities to choose from, three hundred years had given him a lot of knowledge to call upon. The demon was out since he didn't wasn't to kill them and they were pathetic when it came to fighting them off. The herb idea was looking a little better, but it didn't really have his kind of flare to it. He wanted them to know it was him when the time was right, so something else would have to be used.   
  
A few puffs on his pipe helped him think of a few more possibilities, but they were all flawed in some way. He could kidnap their wives and children and 'train' them in their place for a while, but girls were hard to control once they knew how to defend against him. Destroying their reputations would work, but as students of his school that didn't amount to much either. The whole point was to defend and fight against anything that came along, so something else would have to be used against them. He kept coming back to their children and recalled that Genma had a son at one time and had been planning to take him on a training trip just before him and Soun had sealed him in that cave. Hopposai recalled that poor Soun had been cursed with nothing but girls for children as well. He wondered if they were still around the area and what they were doing ten years later?   
  
They would have only been six or so the last time he was around and probably wouldn't remember him in any way. Could he find and use them in his plans in some way that he hadn't considered yet? Yes, that had a lot of possibilities and if he worked it right another chance to find an heir for his style. So long as they had the right attitude anyway, he didn't want to deal with any punk kids that would get in his way whenever they could though, so he would have to be careful if he used the plan. If he went along with it he had the necessary materials to brainwash them if need be, so he wasn't all that worried. Now that he had the basics of a plan he needed to find them, that would the hardest part.   
  
Tapping his pipe out and putting it away, he adjusted his hat and picked up his back pack as he jumped to the street below. He hopped along for several minutes than smirked as he spotted a telephone booth sitting innocently on the edge of a street corner, someone inside talking to someone. He hopped inside, booted the occupant out and into the bushes, and opened the phone book. It took all of five minutes to find Soun Tendo listed in Nerima, complete with his address. Genma on the other hand wasn't in there, but his wife was. Nodoka Saotome was registered in Jubaan and it would be easy enough to get there by train.  
  
"Hey you old geezer, I'm going to make you pay for that!" Yelled the guy as he pulled himself out of the bushes. "AGHAAAAAAAAAA!" Only to find himself flying through the air above the trees as the old man tapped his wrist with that pipe of his.   
  
"Punk kid, respect your elders!" Hopposai yelled as he bounced out of the phone booth and down the street.  
  
He had never thought much of Nodoka Saotome, but she had been the one Genma chose for his grand 'plan' and he hadn't been able to dispute her family background. She had been the unofficial heir to their nearly extinct Devil Hunting legacy and getting that magical and physical potential into his son had been a great idea. Genma had asked him for advice on the best way to pull it off and he had told him to just have a family and not to worry about taking off and abandoning his wife. The way Hopposai figured it, Genma would have an easy life and free access to all the sex he wanted, a win-win situation in his book. The old fool had ignored him though and went to his so called brother.  
  
There was a man that Hopposai kept at a distance, for some reason the bastard just rubbed him the wrong way. What had his name been again? Gensa, Genshi....oh yeah, Gendo Saotome. The man was like a spider, always moving among the shadows and pulling strings to get what he wanted. A couple of years before the two fools had buried him in that cave Gendo had been working for the Yakuza and others, rising among the ranks at an impossible rate of speed. The man was a natural 'under the table' leader and absolutely ruthless in his dealings with anyone that even thought to cross him.  
  
Gendo and Genma had always worked together to get what they wanted, but Hopposai could remember the few times that Gendo had sold out his own brother for one reason or another. Genma had never picked up on it and gotten away because of those sealed techniques of his, but he had also gone straight back to his brother like the moron he is, always ready for more abuse to further his goals. Hopposai wondered what had happened to those two after all these years and if he would have to deal with Gendo to get is revenge on Genma? If anyone deserved to have demon sent after them it was Gendo Saotome, the man wasn't just evil, he was an evil to be disposed of as soon as possible.  
  
With Nerima being the closest to his current location, he decided to pay old Soun a visit he would never forget and see if his skill were still up to stuff. Genma may have outclassed him in raw talent, but Soun had his own skills that had been able to let him hold his own against Genma in the few sparring matches they had been in. Genma had always been one for the air and trained in it exclusively while Soun had specialized in the ground attack version of his Anything Goes. If the two had ever thought to mix their schools and learn from each other they would have taken the first step the needed for him to take them serious as students. Unfortunately their small minds hadn't thought of it and that had ended any possible chance of him ever continuing their training.  
  
So much potential and all of it wasted for their own petty goals, he had seen it happen on more than one occasion, but if they weren't going to work together it was their own damn fault. They had crimes to pay for and he planned to take it out of their hides the first chance he got, hopefully they had spent the last few years training. He wanted a challenge, not a couple of whimpering cowards, but if he remembered right they usually fell to their knees the instant they saw him. That little reaction would be fun to exploit too, they deserved nothing less than the total humiliation that only he could bring them.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma stretched as she ran though her afternoon kata in the back yard of the shrine like she did almost every day, there was a light breeze blowing across the tops of the trees around her. Letting her mind roam as she moved, she thought about what she would have to do later tonight. That fool Jedite had challenged them to a duel, but she didn't think the other girls had it in them to fight the guy. So far they had proven they could take on the low level monsters with ease, but when it came to the Generals the girls were lacking in the needed power. Jedite was getting stronger with every fight as well, continually drawing on more and more just to make sure he survived the fight. Ranma knew that she had nearly had him during their last fight, but he had gotten away at the last moment and she wasn't even sure how. Sure he had teleported off the ship, but he usually created a gate of some kind and jumped through it.  
  
The teleport effect had been swirling flower petals of some kind and not the expected portal, she figured that meant that he'd had help getting away after they killed that last monster of his. A while later he had shown up looking pissed off, healthy, and challenged them to a fight to the death. Ranma didn't want to place the girls in that kind of danger even if this was exactly what they were supposed to fight, they just didn't have the skills to do it and she blamed herself for that, she should have been training them from day one. The only person that even seemed interested in learning from her wasn't even a Scout, but a new friend named Makoto Kino. Ami preferred to study while she had the chance and didn't want to learn how to fight at the moment, Usagi was a great friend, but a pathetic fighter and it showed in her actions. Rei was more interested in trying to find a way to throw her out of the Shrine than learning from her, that still baffled Ranma to some degree, as far as she could tell things weren't that bad between them.   
  
Rei's reaction didn't really bother Ranma all that much though, she didn't consider herself to be this mysterious princess that Ito and Luna were always calling her. A stupid moon symbol on the forehead wasn't enough proof in her book anyway, though she did know that it appeared when she started to draw on her full power. Ranma had been avoiding thinking about her situation for some time now because she wasn't sure what to do about it. Ito had been trying to get her to accept it since day one, but even if she had accepted being female, being a Princess was a whole new headache she didn't want. Sailor Pluto had tricked her by using her pride and honor against her and look where it had landed her.   
  
In a stupid outfit and with a set of powers that had sent her into orgasmic bliss the three times she had transformed. Ranma thought it must have been some 'gift' given to the princess' of the past, all it did was make her wary of the transformation. Pluto has said that it would get less and less over time, but transforming still bothered her. Being reminded of the transformation set her on edge, but she was getting better. Ignoring her situation was the easiest way to deal with it, but every now and then she would be forcibly reminded of it, like when she became a Sailor or had her new sex shoved down her throat by her father. Her and Nabiki had talked about it and she knew that Rei, Ito, and Luna were privy to the secret, but it was a secret she wanted to get rid of. Oh, and Genma too, the bastard had no problem telling anyone so long as it was lie that put him in a better light.  
  
Ranma smirked to herself, the old man was an asshole though and through because of his outdated values and plans, but he knew how to teach someone how to fight well beyond normal and it was one of the few things that helped her to survive what had happened to her. She had learned to out think the old man and beat the training from hell, though how anyone could have predicted Jusenkyo was a mystery to her. Even if she had known how to speak fluent Mandarin when she arrived, she still wouldn't have believed the Guide. Who in there right minds would believe in magic, until Jusenkyo she had scoffed at the idea just like her old man did and paid the price for it.  
  
She was in a female body with a male mind and this was causing her to give this fight with Jedite a different look. A portion of her was willing to take the girls with her, but another portion, the male portion that she was desperately trying to maintain at all costs wanted to protect them and leave them behind where it was be safe. If she did this though it would be like insulting them in a major way and they trusted her to do the right thing since she was supposed to be this fabled Princess. It was enough to make Ranma gag, she had been a loner for her entire life, but she had learned that being female was different than male. Girls liked to be in the thick of things, at least she did and most everyone she had met was the same. So even now they were about to gather out in the front room of the Shrine and get ready for their fight with Jedite and she didn't want to take them into danger.  
  
Even during her time on the team she had never actually taken the girls into a fight, but shown up during the battle, letting the others do what they needed and adding her abilities in where needed. This situation was something she didn't like, but it came down to a few simple facts. Keeping the fight on a one to one level was nearly impossible because of the way Jedite had challenged them, the whole city knew where it was going to take place and who was to be there. The police would be there to stop anyone from even getting near the place let alone even entering Haneda Airport, even them, because they wanted to protect the city from the potential destruction that could be caused by the fight. If she left the girls here and took him on alone they would still know where to find her. Ranma just didn't know what to do, fighting was all she knew and her father had taught her things like tactics and how to read a situation so that she wouldn't be wasting time during the fight. Oh sure he had other names for it, like 'don't be an idiot and do it this way' and 'you pathetic wimp, why are you wasting your time with that?'.  
  
The old man had always had a flair for words that ticked her off in a matter of seconds, but over the years she had learned to out think the old man and adapt his training to a higher purpose. Coming to a stop Ranma grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat off her face and arms, she still had a hold on her Ki though. This was an area that she was having problems with, no matter how much time spent on practice she just couldn't master the things Cologne had shown her. Forming the energy into different shapes was very difficult, the old woman had said she would get it eventually and when she did she would be well on her way to mastering her Ki. As the weeks passed she had practiced for a few hours a day and even though she had grown more skilled in her control, mastering the technique was still out of the question. Making even one change more than twice gave her a head ache, doing more than that split her concentration in too many directions to keep control.  
  
"Ranma?" Ito, in human form, walked into the area where Ranma was practicing and looked around. "Why are you out her in the dark, I can barely see anything and you're always out here way into the night practicing."  
  
"Dark?" Ranma mumbled and looked around. "It not that dark out here Ito, there's still plenty of light to see by."  
  
"Ranma, it's almost ten at night and you're in the middle of the woods where over head lightning isn't available. I can only see because of my cat eyesight that transfers over to this form."  
  
Ranma blinked and looked around a little more, as far as she could tell everything was clear enough to see details. She had thought that it was still early and was about to go in and take a shower before everyone showed up and left for the fight. She turned to check the suns position and had to keep a gasp of surprise to herself as she realized that Ito was telling the truth, the sun wasn't even visible in the sky. She knew where it was, had always known where it was no matter where she was at the time, but this went way beyond what she thought of as normal. "What the hell?"  
  
"Ito, you forget that on top of being our Princess, Ranma is also Sailor Sun and is constantly drawing her powers from it even while untransformed." Luna said as she walked over, she was still in cat form. "Sorry, I was running a little behind Ito and heard the conversation."  
  
"This is because of those Sailor powers?" Ranma snapped. "I feel like the sun is just on the horizon, providing just enough light to see perfectly."  
  
"You are connected to the sun and gain a lot of your energy from it Ranma, eventually when you master the power you should be a force to be reckoned with. It will just take a long time to adapt your body to the full power of the transformation Sailor Sun."  
  
"I thought I told you not to call me that Luna?" Ranma growled.  
  
"It's your title Princess." Luna said stubbornly.  
  
"I said I would come up with a new name, something more in keeping with these modern times. It will still be a sun type name, but a single word instead this ridiculous Sailor Sun crap."  
  
"So what did you come up with Ranma?" Ito asked, trying to distract Luna from losing her temper. Ranma had been driving the black cat up a wall lately with her refusal to fall in line like the other girls.  
  
"I haven't decided just yet, but have a few in mind so I'll have one picked out by the time I get to Haneda Airport. When will the girls start showing up anyway?"  
  
"They're here already, that was the reason I came out here. To bring you in so that you could talk to the girls and come up with the best plan of attack." Ito said.  
  
"Oh that's easy."  
  
"What would that be?"  
  
"I'm going alone."  
  
"What?" Said to voices that seemed to dislike the idea.  
  
"I'm going there without them, the girls aren't ready to take on Jedite alone."  
  
"Are you insane!!" Luna yelled.  
  
"I've defeated him three times so far, I can do it again and this time he won't be running away."  
  
"You need their help Ranma, you can't do everything on your own, not in this situation." Luna snarled.  
  
"They are not up to fighting a General, they are fine for the lesser monsters, but Jedite is out of the question."  
  
This was a first for Luna, she had been dealing with Usagi for so long that she hadn't yet come up against Ranma's stubborn streak, well except for that one time when the girl had leveled that Ki blade at her and threatened her life. Ito had tried to explain that Ranma needed special handling, but Luna had just huffed and figured Ito didn't know how to deal with her charge. She hadn't thought of this though. "Ranma you can't do this, it will hurt their feelings and cause distrust on the team."  
  
"How can you expect me to just take them into danger like that Luna, they are barely trained in their powers. They spend more time going to the park, movies, and each other's houses than they do training how to use their powers. I work with mine on a daily basis, spending a few hours a day pushing myself beyond my limits."  
  
"You have to treat them fairly Ranma, at the moment they are your personal guard and there to protect you when you need it. You many not like that, but it's the way this is done and had been done for some time. If you don't like the way things are done, get out there and start training them a little at a time. They are only fourteen years old Ranma, you're two years older than them and should know better than this." Luna snapped.  
  
"Since when are they my responsibility." Ranma growled.  
  
"You are the Princess Ranma, get over it and move on to the next problem."  
  
"Luna, I understand that part, but you expect me to stand here and believe that I have the right to tell them what to do because I'm this stupid princess idea you keep harping about? Get real, this is the real world not some imaginary Kingdom full of nobility and magic. There are five of us counting the green haired lady, that doesn't make up a Kingdom!"  
  
"Lady Pluto isn't a green haired lady, Ranma." Ito said tiredly.  
  
"Whatever! Luna, Jedite is usually out here to steal energy and place people in the hospital, this time he is out to actually kill them."  
  
"He's out to kill you too!!"   
  
"I have trained for over ten years to protect myself, I'm willing to die in combat if need be, those girls aren't even close to being able to make a decision like that."  
  
Ranma was about to continue the argument when she felt a presence enter the small glade and turned to look as Tuxedo Mask stepped out of the shadows. His black and gray out fit cloaking him almost perfectly, even giving him a bit of a noble out look, though he still looked ridiculous to Ranma. "What do you want?!"  
  
"The girl is right Princess, the Scouts were fighting this evil off long before you showed up. It started with Moon doing it alone, something she really didn't, and still doesn't want to do, but she is knows that if she gives up people will be hurt."  
  
"She doesn't talk about that time to much, just how thankful she is to have others around her so that she doesn't have to do this alone anymore." Luna said. She didn't trust Tuxedo Mask, but hoped he might be able to sway the Princess from this foolhardy decision.  
  
Mask also leveled his cane at Ranma and frowned. "Your skills are considerable Princess, but you can not take on this evil alone. Moon couldn't do it when she started, nor could she do it when she had the help of the blue haired Mercury. It wasn't until Mars showed up that that they got the needed fire power to stand against Jedite's evil, then you showed up and made things worse."  
  
"Excuse me?!" Ranma snarled at Tuxedo Mask.  
  
"Jedite started to use more of his power than he did in those earlier fights, after you showed up, he started to take more of an interest in you and has become a lot more dangerous because of it. At this moment the girl's can't face him as they are, but neither can you unless you can find more power than you already possess."  
  
"Don't you dare lecture me Penguin, I've had to suffer through more years of hell than you can possibly conceive of to reach the level I'm at now." Ranma snarled and clenched her fists.  
  
"I know you can not take this man on alone Princess, he has made plans to kill all of you and you're planning to walk into it without back up?" Mask's tone was almost condescending in it's disbelief.  
  
Ranma controlled her anger though will power alone, no one implied that she was weak without paying for it, no one, not after what she has been through. "So your saying I should just take those three untrained and vulnerable girls into a known trap, it would be a better idea if I just gave up my life to stop him than all of us doing so."  
  
Mask leveled a glare at Ranma. "I have my reasons for knowing this, if you go alone you will fail, if those girls go with you there is a much better chance of winning."  
  
"Princess." Ito said as she stepped forward, she had heard of the infamous Tuxedo Mask, but hadn't ever had a chance to see or even meet the man. His cloaking spell was enough to hide his identity from her, just like the normal scouts, but there was something familiar about him that she couldn't place. "In this case he is right, the team will win if you give them the chance, or you will fail if you go alone."  
  
"What if they die?!" Ranma yelled at Ito.  
  
"Then they will have died doing their duty Ranma, they are inexperienced, but it's way to late to do anything about it now. You will need to leave within the hour and they need to be with you, or Jedite will win."  
  
Ranma's glare turned back on Mask and if anything, it got even colder. "If they go you will do as you have been doing Tuxedo Mask, you will protect them to the best of your ability."  
  
Tuxedo Mask didn't say a word or even nod as he stepped into a shadowed night around him and vanished. Ranma ignored him, something in her said that he would do just as she had ordered. He always showed up to the fights, though rarely participated in any way other than to throw some tripe words at the girls to encourage them. Like the girls, he seemed to depend more on his power than his skills, though she could tell that he had a little hand to hand skill and Kendo skill from the way he was holding the cane. She turned back to the cats and sighed.  
  
"I hope you are right, I really don't want to lead these girls to their deaths tonight."  
  
"They are stronger than you think they are Ranma." Luna said. "Let's head back to the house."  
  
"You head on ahead Luna, I want to pick up the rest of my stuff, I'll be in to take a shower in a few minutes."   
  
"Okay Ranma." Luna said and walked off.  
  
Once she was out of sight Ranma quickly collected her stuff and put them in a gym bag she had sitting nearby. "Ito, what is your opinion of Mask? Something was off about him, as if he was trying to hide something."  
  
"He's not all there."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"His eyes were intense, but at the same time they were completely blank. It was as if a whole portion of his mind wasn't working, he wasn't all there."  
  
"You think he's crazy?"  
  
"Crazy?"  
  
"Yeah, if he's not all there that means that he could turn into a threat when he does become whole again."  
  
"No, he's not crazy, but we don't know his motives and that could be a problem."  
  
"Alright, I can see that. We will have to keep a closer eye on him for the time being, is there anyway to do that without letting him know about it?"  
  
"I suppose me or Luna could follow him home or something, but he will keep pulling that disappearing trick."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "He's using some kind of magic to mask his movements, I'm not sure how just yet, but it would be a good idea to figure out how he does it."  
  
"We can check with Luna's Home Office." Ito said.  
  
They started walking back to the Shrine. "What in the world is that?"  
  
"Luna has a little help she can call on every now and then, she calls it Home Office, they have a special room under the Arcade that has an access terminal."  
  
"Has this place been of any help to the girls?"  
  
"A little, according to Luna they helped to find Mercury and Mars."  
  
"Hmmm..." Ranma said as they arrived back at the Shrine. "I'll join the others in a few minutes, I need a shower."  
  
"Okay." Ito said as she transformed back into a cat and ran inside.  
  
Ranma followed her at a slower pace and headed for her room to get a change of clothes and some bath supplies, she wasn't looking forward to this fight, but at least she had a chance to get ready for it. Her old man would have been sneak attacking her around every corner if things had been the way they used to, she still expected it in fact, though not as much as she used to. She just hoped that her life with old man was over for a good long time, things had been settling down lately, even with the Youma attacks and such. Her old man could be a thousand times more irritating with his weird ideas for training, like shackling a hundred kilo lead weight to her leg on a chain and forcing her to fight with the handicap. At least Jedite could be a bit predictable and easy to read, though not as much as he had been.  
  
But first, she really needed a shower.  
  
**********  
  
The door to the run down bar opened up and in walked Gendo Saotome dressed in an old suit that had seen better days. He looked around the sparsely filled run down hole that his brother had decided to use as a meeting place while they were both in the same city. His gaze stopped on some guy across the room who was giving them 'the look'. The one where he thought he had found an easy mark and was about to do something stupid. Gendo's eyes bored into his from twenty feet away and nearly knocked the man over with the look alone. The guy backed up and paled, nearly pissing his pants as he realized that picking on this guy would be a bad idea.  
  
From there Gendo continued his look over of the bar until he spotted his brother sitting in the back corner and keeping an eye on everyone in the bar while his back was to the wall. It was a pretty typical position for his brother Genma, the man had managed to piss off quite a few people on his training trip and always had to be on the look out for possible enemies coming at him for revenge. With a smirk Gendo made his way across the bar and watched out of the corner of his eye as the man that had thought about assaulting him scrambled away from him in fear.  
  
He adjusted his glasses and sat down at his brother's table and noted the half dozen bottles of beer spread across the table and glazed look in Genma's eyes. They hadn't talked to each other face to face like this in a couple of years now and Gendo almost wished it could have been a little longer. He hated dealing with is worthless excuse of a brother, the man's stupidity was always getting him into one form of trouble or another. Currently Genma was dressed a he always was, in a dirty and thread bare white gi and just beginning to show his age. The scarf on his head looked like it had seen better days as well, but that didn't bother Gendo do much. Genma had begun loosing his hair when he turned thirty and the last ten years hadn't been all that kind to him.  
  
"Genma."  
  
"Gendo."  
  
"What was it you wanted to see me about?"  
  
"The boy has done something stupid and managed to get away from me."  
  
Gendo kept a flash of anger from spreading to his face and did what was needed to control his temper. "How?"  
  
"He ran away."  
  
"Why?" Gendo snapped, he had told this fool on hundreds of occasions that treating someone as badly as he did Ranma would be a mistake. It was one of the few things he had never been able to get Genma to back down from.  
  
"We were at the last training ground of the trip when he gave up his manhood and vanished off the face of the planet."  
  
"Gave up his manhood?"  
  
Genma nodded drunkenly.  
  
"How did he do that? Did he suddenly turn gay, put on a dress, and change his name to Suzzy?" Gendo growled out. He could see finely crafted plans crumbling around him as he sat there.  
  
"I don't know why he did it, but he managed to get away from me while we were finishing up our training."  
  
"Where were you training?"  
  
"A place in China called Jusenkyo."  
  
Gendo nearly fell out of his chair as the name rebounded around his head, he had heard of the place before, but he couldn't recall any details. Only that it was one of the last places on Earth that he had ever wanted to visit, he would need to look up more details on the place later on. "Why did you go there, that place is more dangerous than anything you could ever imagine."  
  
"How in the hell was I to know what that place was?" Genma complained and drank some more of his beer. "The place was listed as a dangerous training ground and even had guide books printed with maps on how to get there. I thought it would be perfect for training the boy and inserting more of my control over him."  
  
"Idiot!! Of all the places to take him, the name of the place should have clued you into just how bad a place that was to take him!" Gendo yelled.  
  
"Oh come on, I barely understand Chinese, how was I to know what would happen." Genma complained and drained the rest of his beer. He let off a loud belch, farted, and passed out across the table.  
  
Gendo's eyes lit up with hate as he gazed down at his 'brother' and seriously considered killing the moron right then and there. Then he sighed and backed off, Genma was the only family he had left and there were things that he still needed to accomplish if he was to succeed with his long range plans. He pushed his chair back and stood up to glare down at the idiot before him for several seconds before turning on his heel and stalking out of the bar. It was several seconds after the door slammed that Genma's eyes opened and he sat up with a grin.   
  
"All to easy 'big' brother." He muttered as he stood and paid his tab at the bar. Getting the bars mad him for stealing was something he didn't do, he liked coming back to drink with his friends.  
  
"What was that about Saotome?" Asked the bartender as he rang up Genma's bill.  
  
"Just some family business."  
  
"You be careful, that one is very dangerous and I wouldn't want to be on his bad side."  
  
"True, but Gendo has his uses." Genma said as he turned and took the back way out of the bar. It just to be cautious, but even he knew that to piss off his brother by tricking was as good a way to earn a death warrant as anything else. There wasn't much Gendo could actually do about it though so Genma wasn't all that worried. He had bigger things to worry about, like finding the boy and getting him to fulfill the pact between families, there was a huge amount of money on the line if he pulled this off and he would be set for life.  
  
He was about to exit the alley behind the bar when Genma felt his danger sense start to warn him of something. With a curse he turned around and looked into the night darkened space behind him and wondered if his brother had seen through his play acting. He took a defensive stance and glared into the murk around him, but only the silence could be detected. He sent his senses out and wondered if he had made a mistake, then he reacted without thought as a series of chains sailed through the spot he had been standing seconds earlier. He could see the glint of light off the blades at the end of the chains just before they retracted into the darkness around him.  
  
"Who's there?" He growled out.  
  
"Just me old man." Said a whisper on the wind.  
  
Genma snarled as he heard the voice and relaxed slightly, he had dealt with this one on several occasions before this and he knew that this fight wouldn't be any different than the last time. They had been fighting each other for some years now and this guy hadn't yet come even close to killing him no matter how much he tried, though it was always a surprise that he tended to work alone instead of with a team. "I nearly killed you last time, what makes you think this will be different?"  
  
"Even a rat can sometimes have a bit of lunch, eh, rat?" Snarled the evil sounding voice, to Genma it was a waste of time.  
  
"I'll kill you this time, you have been bothering me for far to long." Genma growled out and began going over his Yama Sen Ken technique's more lethal maneuvers.  
  
Silence greeted his statement and Genma as he stood there and looked around, he knew he was going to have to find a better place to fight than an alley in the worst part of town. He spun on his heel and launched himself to a nearby roof with a grunt of effort, he was getting to old for this kind of crap. He took off running along the edge of the roof just as a half dozen throwing spikes slammed into the stone by his feet and exploded, two passed within inches of his nose and shot past his head. This didn't slow him down in any way as he looked off into the distance to look for a better place for them to fight, they had done this enough times to know that wherever that was, the place wouldn't last very long. Both of them were well trained fighters, but this bastard had been trained in ways that allowed him to keep up with him and that little detail had always surprised him. Genma frowned as he looked ahead made out a small area where a bit of construction was in progress, the bare bones of a four story building, it would be perfect for his needs and vulnerable to the Yama Sen Ken special attacks.   
  
He was glad it was late at night though, doing what he had planned during the day would have gotten him in a whole lot of trouble he didn't want to deal with right now. With a speed and grace that would have surprised even his friend Soun, Genma jumped from roof to roof with ease, he had learned a lot of things over the years with his son that even Hopposai hadn't ever bothered to teach him. Roof hopping was a skill he'd had to learn after teaching his son the Neko-Ken, the little bastard had taken to running across or over anything that had gotten in his way. Hopposai used the roof's in his little games, but he's never gotten around to teaching him and Soun how to do certain things, instead they'd learned how to create their own types of attacks and work as a team.  
  
This is where his Yama Sen Ken and Umi Sen Ken schools had come from, Genma hated to admit that he would never have even come up with the schools if it wasn't for the Hopposai, but it was true non the less. He might have even respected the old Master if he had actually taught them less of his lifestyle and more of the Art itself. Genma was in his early forties now and had developed a bit of a spare tire over the years, but he was still in pretty good shape for his years on the road. Now all he had to do was defeat this guy again and get his son back so that his plans can get underway. He moved along quickly, using more skill and balance than the most dedicated ballet dancer ever could.   
  
Genma kept up the speed and used his danger sense to make sure that his follower didn't get lucky with all those explosive spikes that were being thrown, there was a trail of damaged roofs behind him for several blocks that attested to his skill at evasion. He finally slowed down a little to see if he could spot the jerk, but all was silent, then he saw a glint of light and he launched himself off the roof just as a dozen spikes and throwing stars flew out of the night air to hit things all around the area. Genma dodged and weaved through the storm as best he could, batting those that got to close out of the air with ease. As of yet his attacker hadn't made an appearance of any kind, hell in their last three fights he had only ever seen the guy as a retreating shadow.  
  
With a final jump Genma reached the edge of a roof and jumped across the distance between this and the newly framed building. He landed on the upper part of the building's framework and instantly flipped to the side as another series of explosive spikes slammed into the steel work. Genma instantly started to gather his Ki as he ran to center of the top floor along the metal I-beams, this type of attack with the Yama Sen Ken was incredibly destructive and would take a lot out of him, but it was well worth the time it took to get it right. Behind him a figure dressed in black landed on the edge and looked at him with every intention of killing him. Genma just smirked as he got a rare look a the guy that had been trying to kill him for some time now.   
  
He was a short man, extremely thin, and flexible as he ran along the I-beams like a sure footed cat. Genma could feel him gathering his Ki as well, though it still wasn't up to his standards of skill. He was dressed as a ninja and blended in with the darkness around him almost completely, only the large weapon on his back gave him away and even that was nearly impossible to see. Whatever it was, he had no idea, only that it wasn't a sword and that the handle seemed wider than it should have been and had a large hollow ring at the very end. Genma took a battle stance and let his Ki funnel into the building supports, if this worked the way it did last time it would rip the whole building apart when he struck the right spot with the right amount of Ki.  
  
"I've got you now you bastard."  
  
"Do you?" Genma said with a smirk.  
  
"A non moving target is so much easier to hit and you make it so easy to do at times." The dark figure said as it slinked it's way across the beams and made its way towards Genma, pulling a the large object off it's back, Genma still couldn't get a good enough look at the thing to see what it was.  
  
Under normal circumstances Genma would have been a little more cautious, but dealing with a Ninja was like dealing with bugs. Kill one and more come out of the wood work and where there was one there was usually two or three hidden nearby as back up, though in this case Genma couldn't find any other aura's that would indicate this. "I remember out last fight Ninja, just how did you get away from that trap I led you into last time? I did drop half a mountain on top of you, but like a bug you seem to have survived."  
  
"Pure skill asshole, you couldn't kill me if you even tried."  
  
Genma snorted. "Luck is more like it Ninja, you picked the wrong time to pull this crap today and I'm going to prove that statement of yours wrong."  
  
"You're an out of shape coward."  
  
Genma just smiled and just looked back at his enemy as if he had nothing to fear, he kept his face free of any thing that might have clued his enemy into what he had planned for him. The move was almost ready to go by then, just a little more Ki to gather and he would be ready to make sure this Ninja never bothered him again.  
  
The ninja stopped moving as he got in position and crouched down on the beam about ten feet away from Genma and studied him for a second, but it looked as if the man was just standing there without a care in the world. Then he leapt across the distance between them, bringing that weird weapon around to quickly behead his prey. This surprised Genma a little as he hadn't expected the moron to do a frontal assault with the possibility of a four story drop into the construction site below. He backed up a little and let the last of his built up Ki enter the structure and created a link to it so that he could set off the trap at any point he wanted.   
  
Then Genma twitched and kicked out to catch the Ninja in the stomach, exploding into motion as they started to battle back and forth. Mid air combat, just like his son, was his specialty and attacking him in the air like this was almost like committing suicide, Genma pulled them off the I-beams and within a split second they were falling head first towards the ground. Ki aura's exploded from both of them and lit up the top of the building in a yellow and red contrast that highlighted everything around them. Genma's yellow hummed loudly over a foot from his body, while the Ninja's was quite a bit smaller and less focused. When his fist impacted against the ninja's chest and sent him flying back across the I-beams Genma knew he had this fight in the bag. With a flip Genma redirected his angle of decent and landed on a beam a couple of floor down, he smirked and looked up to see how the ninja had taken the hit. Only to have to suddenly dodge to the side as he found that the ninja almost on top of him, his oddly shaped weapon came down where Genma had been standing and sliced through the I-beam as if wasn't there.   
  
Genma had a split second where he could have attacked, but he didn't move fast enough and the ninja flipped off the damaged beam and vanished into the darkness around them. A bit of sweat dripped down his face as the night went quiet again, he could only hear the sound of traffic in the distance as he stood there and concentrated. He needed to get the ninja in the right place to set off his trap, as he stood there he noticed that it was getting harder to hold the trap ready. He cursed under his breath and sent his senses out around him to pick up the slightest alteration of his surroundings, he needed to have a chance to counter attack in the right position. Reaction without thought was one of the prime tenants of the Anything Goes school and Genma proved it by suddenly twisting and falling off the I-beam for no noticeable reason, a couple of dozen shurinkan slammed into the metal around him, missing him by millimeters.  
  
He flipped and landed on the ground with a grunt and did a stop, drop, and roll out of the way of another half dozen mini knives that slammed into the ground where he had landed, these exploded. Coming to his knees, Genma flared with yellow light and slammed his fist into one of the nearby I-beams and set off his trap a little early, he couldn't hold it anymore. He didn't unseal the forbidden techniques for just anyone, but this guy had become a pest that had to dealt with before the guy got lucky. He caught a glimpse of a fast moving shadow higher up in the building just as he set off his trap, a low level rumble went through the entire structure a split second later.  
  
The building started to light up with yellow energy as his attack did it's work and he watched as entire I-beams wrenched themselves out of their mornings and caused the whole structure to collapse in on itself. The building was decimated in seconds and the rest of it seemed to be lit up in an ethereal fire, while at the same time Genma gave a mental yank and shattered the half completed floors and he was able to protect himself from his own attack. Seconds later the whole thing imploded on itself and came down around Genma, but didn't seem to affect him in anyway as he swatted the I-beams out of his way, the shattered into smaller pieces at his touch as his Ki had destroyed the bonds that held the metal together, though there were some close calls. He had a maniacal look on his face as he walked out of the area and scanned the area for the mangled body of the ninja, but he could find no sign of it.  
  
Gasping for air, he glared at his surroundings and wondered if he hadn't just pushed himself to far. He almost exploded in frustration, but held his anger in check and moved out of the area when he started to hear sirens in the distance, feelings of fatigue washed over him and he was forced to leave the area as quickly as he could. Seconds later he was walking away from the destroyed building like a possessed man, a look of fear on his face and sweat dripping off his head and making his gi stick to him in uncomfortable places. He hadn't been this tired in several long years, even after collapsing that abandoned mine like he had the last time him and the ninja fought. He wasn't sure why, but a tiny part of him was telling him that he went a little to far. Then he shook himself and smirked, almost preening with pride as he looked at what he had done from another point of view.  
  
He hadn't used that kind of attack since his early days when had first created the Yama Sen Ken, and it had been about ten times more powerful than the last time he used it. All that training over the years with his idiot son had done him a world of good, no one could stand up to him now except the Master and that was a fight he had no intentions of ever having in the first place. After watching the fire burn for several minutes Genma turned and limped off into the night, he wanted to get back to Tendo's place before Kasumi had dinner finished. He was really hungry after using up all that energy and he needed to replace it and what better way than food made by Tendo's daughter?   
  
Behind him, a couple of roof tops away a shadow moved and the ninja staggered out of it and collapsed to it's knees. Gasping for air and knew he surveyed his injuries now that he had a chance and knew instantly that he was dying, he was missing his left arm and most of his outfit was shredded beyond decency, blood flowed down his left side and dripped all over the roof tiles, there wasn't a thing he could do to stop the blood flow. The ninja gasped, or gargled, for air as he caught a glimpse of Genma in the distance as he walked around a corner, the bastard had barely been injured in the attack.  
  
The ninja reached into it's shredded jacket and grit its teeth in pain as he pulled out a small cell phone that was surprisingly intact and only sported a few scratches on its case, though dialing a phone with one hand is a pain in the ass. He carefully tapped a preset button and waited for someone to answer. His breathing slowed and a pool of blood had formed around him by the time ten rings had passed, then someone answered.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I found him, engaged him in combat and failed." He gargled.  
  
"What happened?" Snapped the voice.  
  
"He used some kind of super powerful Ki attack to collapse the building on top of me."  
  
"I see, can you make it back?"  
  
"No, I'm already dead."  
  
There was silence on the other end for several seconds. "I see, we will avenge you."  
  
The ninja gargled out a laugh. "Why bother, I am but a shadow."  
  
"You are one of us."  
  
"Then make him suffer, he has a lot to pay for. Trace the phone to find my body and have me disposed of."  
  
"Of course...father."  
  
With a gasp the ninja faded from life, only the soft crying from the phone could be heard on the cool night air and even that soon died off. Down in the debris of the building the Police were looking over the crime scene and spreading out to cover every square inch of the site when one of them found a strange looking object half buried in the collapsed building and pointed it out to his commanding officer.   
  
"Sir!"  
  
"What is it Ikari?" Said a trench coated man who walked over.  
  
"Commander Smith, I found something odd sir, it doesn't look like any kind of construction device I've ever seen."  
  
Commander Smith looked the object over carefully before pulling a glove on and carefully pulling the thing out of the pile, his first judgment on the thing was that it was... incredibly fucking heavy! "Gods, this thing has to weigh at least 200 pounds!! I can barely lift."  
  
"What the hell is it?" Ikari asked as he helped the commander lift the thing and tested the edge.  
  
"Looks like a giant snow shovel."  
  
"The edges of it are razor sharp so it has to be a weapon of some kind." Ikari said as he sucked on his bleeding thumb and hoped he hadn't just screwed up the evidence to much.  
  
"Oh nice going sergeant."  
  
"Heheheheh."  
  
"Good work Sergeant, now go find some more and get your gloves on, do it properly this time, I'll get this to the car."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
**********  
  
With tired movements Rei leaned back against the wall of the furo and stifled a yawn as she thought about her horrid day, she didn't think it could get any worse than it already was either. She had sent Ranma out of the house for the whole weekend with that Nabiki girl, at least that had been the plan. Instead she had come home early this morning and stumbled into the shrine when everyone was asleep, Rei had been asked by her grandfather to take care of her and find out why she was home so early from visiting her friend. That had been a trial all on it's own because she had managed to come across Usagi as Mamoru lay into her with his insults, Rei had been forced to listen to Usagi as she cried over the communicator.   
  
She was privately surprised that Usagi's wail didn't shatter all the glass in the area every time she did that. Even weirder was the fact that Ranma had interrupted the two and given the boy a thrashing right out in front of everybody. Usagi had oscillated between extreme sorrow filled with tears to cheering Ranma's actions, then back again, Rei didn't really know how to read a girl like Usagi. Even her vaunted PSI abilities failed her when it came to her flighty friend, weird things just seemed to follow her around like a cloak or something. Then she found out that she had to spend the rest of the morning cleaning out and dusting some of the unused rooms in the shrine, that had not gone over to well.   
  
Normally she didn't mind, but she had about four hours sleep because of that creep Jedite and spent half the night tossing and turning, then Ranma, then the cleaning, then to have to spend all day in school, she had not been a happy camper by the time she got home. Then she had found out that Ranma had actually skipped school, SKIPPED IT, like doing so wasn't anything big. She liked Ranma, she really did and had proved on at least one occasion to be from the Silver Millennium so she wasn't as mean to her as she had been in the beginning, but there was no way that girl could be a Princess like Luna wanted them to believe. The girl had all the feminine grace of a walrus, she didn't know the simplest things about being a girl.   
  
Like how to figure out one's sizes, she had no clue and just tried things on till they fit, getting her into the Jubaan High School uniform had been easy, getting her into one that fit correctly and didn't ride up in places had been impossible. She hadn't even know what a slip was, for crying out loud, everyone knew what a slip was for. They were so obvious, but not Ranma, give her a t-shirt and jeans and she would be ready to go to the Opera as if it was perfectly normal. Rei sighed, her feelings for Ranma tended to go from like to dislike in less than a second and she didn't know why. At least with Usagi she knew she didn't like the girl all that much, but when it came to Ranma she had no clue.  
  
One day she was perfectly fine, acting like her normal self so long as certain subjects like martial arts, family, and rivals were not brought up. When they were though Ranma seemed to do a complete 180 and turn into this arrogant jerk that could drive her up a wall, that is what Ranma had been like this morning after she got back from Nerima, in a bad mood and willing to 'break' anybody that got in her way. Just like that fool Mamoru, she had been surprised when she heard that nothing permanent had been done to the guy. Usagi hadn't really noticed, she was to caught up trying to decided how to ask Motaki down at the arcade out and finding a way to avoid Mamoru to do so.  
  
Rei dragged herself out of the bath and spent a few minutes slowly drying off with a large fluffy towel. Eventually she wrapped her hair up and used another towel to cover her body while she went down the hall to her room. She stifled a yawn as she heard Ranma practicing in the distance, making enough noise to be heard at this distance was pretty hard to do, but Ranma never failed to keep her yelling down as she went through her martial arts training. Rei dropped her towels and quickly got dressed in a pair of jeans and a long t-shirt, she wanted something comfortable and serviceable if something weird happened. She was constantly wondering about the super short skirts on their costumes, sure they made the look good and showed off her great legs, but that wasn't the point. She wanted to change them into something more useful, like color coded riot gear, but Luna said the most they could do was alter the color scheme. Like that was useful, she headed out of her bedroom and down the hall to the front room where Usagi and Ami had already arrived, she figured the old man let them in while she was busy.  
  
The girls were sitting in the front room watching TV while they waited, Rei noticed that someone had set out a plate of cookies. Though Usagi was absently chain eating them as she sat there with a bored look on her face, she was getting crumbs all over her a long gray skirt, cute shoes, and a white blouse. Rei had seen the girl eat, so getting crumbs on her shoes was preferable to the walls. Ami on the other hand   
  
"Hi Usagi, Ami."   
  
"Hi Rei, where's Ranma?" Ami asked, she was wearing a simple black shirt and a pair of overalls. Rei figured they all thought that wearing comfortable clothes would be a good idea tonight since they didn't know what was going to happen.  
  
"Just listen, you can hear her practicing back in the woods behind the shrine." They all listened, but after a few seconds of total silence Rei shrugged. "She must have finished, she'd been going at it for some time now. I'll bet she either on her way back in or already in the shrine somewhere getting changed."  
  
"She certainly works hard, doesn't she?" Usagi asked.  
  
Ito rolled her eyes when Usagi wasn't looking in her direction, she was of Luna's opinion that Usagi needed a good and swift kick in the pants to get her off her lazy butt and learn something instead of sitting around commenting on Ranma's actions. "Ranma has trained in martial arts all her life, with her Ki talents I honestly don't know if there is a normal human in the world that could beat her. Though she says she had met a few masters that were several levels above her skills."  
  
Ami nodded as she pulled out her computer. "Ranma has been a great asset to us since she arrived. We were slowly losing against Jedite and his Youma, but when she turned up things shifted in our favor so much that losing those little battles would have been almost impossible. Jedite is the only one we have to worry about and Ranma has managed to hurt him on several occasions now."  
  
"Ami, she may be an asset, but her arrogance gets on my nerves even faster than some of the things Usagi has done."  
  
"Hey!!" Usagi complained.  
  
"Ranma is a very nice girl Rei, she doesn't respond well to people telling her what to do or how to do it. She has a classic loner profile and doesn't react well to authority figures, I'm not sure why though."  
  
"Loner my ass, she's just a jerk with a large chip on her shoulder."  
  
Ami shrugged and typed some more stuff into the little computer. "Well we need her, she has managed to add over 35% to our over all power level and increased the chances of taking Jedite out by over 40% in just the last three battles and we still haven't seen her full power yet."  
  
"So what?" Rei grumbled and crossed her arms.  
  
"The fight on the ship allowed her to show us some of her physical abilities and she wiped the floor with Jedite, this fight she will have to use her magical abilities and if these readings are right she should be able to do some serious damage."  
  
"Humph!"  
  
"It's time for all of you to get ready." Ito said as she padded into the room and hopped up on the coffee table in front of Ami's chair.  
  
"Yeah, we have a little while yet to get ready for this fight with Jedite. Have you seen Ranma in the last little while?"  
  
"I just got back from talking to her, she's in the shower right now getting cleaned up."   
  
"She came in while you were in your room Rei." Usagi said from where she was sitting, she was wearing her normal stuff, . She was petting Luna, who was sitting in her lap looking as if the world was sitting on her shoulders, Usagi was oblivious to this.   
  
Rei got out some food and set out some more cookies for Usagi and Ami as they sat moved to the dinning room, though Ami kept herself busy on her little computer. Whatever she was working on must have been important for her to spend so much time messing with it like that. Rei was about to ask when, of course, Ranma walked into the room drying her hair. This would have been fine, but she was only half dressed as she walked into the kitchen. She was wearing her normal red shirt and black pants, but the shirt was unbuttoned and let everyone in the kitchen see her chest, Ranma didn't even seem to have noticed as things jiggled hypnotically.  
  
"Ranma!!" Rei gasped in shock.  
  
Ranma straightened up and looked back at Rei as she drank from a water bottle she kept in the refrigerator. "What's up Rei?"  
  
"Button your damned shirt!"  
  
Ranma blinked and looked down, she was wearing her normal black pants and shoes and they seemed to be in good condition, but she had only taken the time to toss on her shirt and hadn't had time to do anything with it and had to dry her hair before it dripped down the back and embarrassed her again. Since she refused to wear a bra, unless she had to, it meant that her the front was open and showing off the curve of her ample breasts for all the girls to see. She really didn't really see the point, but shrugged and went back to drying her hair as quickly as she could and set things to bouncing again.  
  
"Sure Rei, I just need to finish this off first." Ranma said with a smirk and watched as Rei's face turned bright red.   
  
"Y-you pervert!" Rei growled.  
  
"Ah come on Rei, I'm just having a little fun."   
  
"Don't worry about it Rei, were all girls here so it doesn't matter. I think it's nice that Ranma is so relaxed with her body that she doesn't care how she looks, I wish I was that confident about myself." Usagi said with more than a little envy. Luna just snorted and looked over at Ito, who just rolled her eyes again.  
  
"Urk..." Ranma said and blushed a little, so much for teasing Rei a little before the fight started.  
  
"Ami don't you think that Ranma should cover herself up while were at this meeting, we do have that fight to take care of later." Rei asked.  
  
The blue haired scout looked up from her mini-computer. "Huh? What are you talking about?"  
  
Rei slumped over with a sigh and pointed at Ranma.  
  
"Oh, nice look Ranma." Ami said as she noticed the way Ranma was dressed, it didn't help that Ranma was absently scratching one of her breasts the instant Ami looked at her.  
  
"Thanks Ami."  
  
Everyone blinked as Ranma walked out of the room as if nothing was wrong, Ami just shrugged and went back to working on her computer. Though if anyone had been looking closely they would have seen the slight blush that was on Ami's cheeks, unfortunately they were all trying to get the image of Ranma scratching herself out of their heads. Ranma breezed back into the room a few minutes later, she had buttoned her shirt up. She looked a lot better and more alert than she had when she first entered the room, though the glare she was giving Ito was enough to make the cat start sweating.  
  
"Are you ready for this fight Ranma, you seem a little too relaxed?" Rei asked.  
  
Ranma gave a start and shrugged. "I'm always ready to fight and I owe that Jedite jerk a good beating for some of the crap he has tried to pull lately."  
  
"I don't want to do this!" Usagi said and cringed back as Rei glared at her.  
  
With an almost visible relief Rei turned to Usagi as the complaints she had been waiting for all evening finally materialized. "MEATBALL HEAD!! We have to do this or he will destroy the entire city and kill millions!"  
  
"But..."   
  
"Don't complain to me about this!" Rei yelled back, it was a like a stress relief.  
  
"Usagi, we have to stop Jedite, he has already come very close to killing several people. I'm included in that since I tend to stop him the most, his attacks have gotten really dangerous lately as well. He has to be stopped and hopefully the attacks will stop with him." Ranma said as she sat down beside Ami to see what she was working on.  
  
"From what I have seen so far, Jedite is but the first of several people that will be attacking the coming months." Ami said as she looked up from her computer, then nearly fell over as she found Ranma sitting right beside her.  
  
"What?!" Usagi squeaked and nearly passed out.  
  
Ranma raised and eyebrow, she had been in enough fights to know that Jedite wasn't anything more than the first round, but didn't understand how Ami knew. "How do you know that?"  
  
Ami adjusted her glasses and gave Ranma and evil smirk, light seemed to reflect off the lenses with an almost audible 'shing!' sound. "In several of our battles Jedite has claimed that he is but one member of a group of men that are trying to control this world. That means that after we defeat him there will be someone else to replace him."  
  
"I hadn't even considered that." Rei mumbled to herself.  
  
"That makes sense really, I was thinking along the same lines myself." Ranma said.   
  
Usagi whimpered.  
  
"What's your problem Usagi! We've been doing this for months now!" Rei yelled.  
  
"Killing a Youma or two is one thing, but you want us to just go out and kill Jedite just like that?!"   
  
"He's evil and trying to take over the world! Of course I want you to go out and just do him in 'just like that'!" Rei nearly screamed. "He's trying to kill us!"  
  
"Will you all calm down!" Luna yelled as she hopped up on the table. "You need a plan so that you can get through this. Usagi, Jedite will not hesitate to kill you if he gets the chance so quit complaining and get your butt in gear."  
  
"But I don't wanna!" Usagi Whined.  
  
Luna sighed and hung her head.  
  
Leaning back a little, Ranma wondered again if there was chance she could take on Jedite by herself like she had originally decided to do. There was a good chance, but she wasn't stupid enough to know that a planned trap like this wouldn't have a lot unexpected things that might happen. As much as she hated to admit it, that Tuxedo'd moron had a point, she couldn't do this alone. Glancing over at the Usagi and Rei, she ignored their fight and wondered if they really had what was needed to take this guy down, Ranma had her doubts about them all, they didn't have the right attitude for this. Though, for all their arguing, they did make a pretty good team when they got their act together and actually managed to carry out a plan. That usually fell to Ami when she used that little computer of hers to find an enemy's weakness or find the best way to win the fight.  
  
"Do you think Tuxedo Mask will be there too?" Usagi suddenly asked.  
  
Ranma winced as she remembered her conversation with the guy earlier and suddenly hopped the idiot didn't show up. She was getting really tired of bad Haiku and roses thrown like hand spikes, it was embarrassing. Sure they had a little power in them and a concussive wave strong enough cause more than a little damage was released when they hit, but they didn't help out all that much, it was more like a convenient distraction than anything else. Though Ranma was happy that he had been focusing his attentions more on Usagi than any of the others, it was better for his health if he kept doing that too. She had every intention of double punching the penguin suited idiot the instant the took it upon himself to save her from anything.  
  
"Of course he will show up Meatball Head, we have a date!" Rei crowed.  
  
Ranma sighed, why did girls do this kind of crap?  
  
"What?!! But he's My Tuxedo Mask!" Usagi whined some more and started to get tears in her eyes.  
  
"I thought you had a crush on that guy at the Arcade, Usagi?" Ami said in all innocence.  
  
With a sigh Ranma stood up. "It's time to go, lets get this over with shall we."  
  
"Um, Ranma, how are we going to get to Haneda Airport?" Usagi asked.  
  
"I was going to roof hop, why?"  
  
"It's on the other side of Tokyo, that's why, over forty miles away by land." Ami said, wondering why she hadn't thought about this before now. She blushed at her oversight.  
  
"Then we take a car or bus." Rei suggested.  
  
"The buses stop running at this time of night, were a good distance from one of the all night bus stops and they said on the news that they were stopping all bus service to Haneda Airport tonight to keep people away while the police took care of this threat." Ami said in return.  
  
Ranma looked at the cats, but they just pretended to be sleeping all of a sudden, even going so far as to pretend to snore. "Some help you are."  
  
Ito rolled over in her 'sleep' and absently scratched Ranma's ankle again.  
  
"Hey, you idiot cat!!" Ranma screeched from the ceiling. "Cut that out!"  
  
"Ranma, most of the trains are run by computer, I can use mine to get into the system and get us there in a few minutes." Ami said.  
  
Dropping to the floor, absently stepping on Ito's tail and getting a hiss of pain from the cat, she smirking innocently. Ranma thought it over for a second. "I don't know Ami, that might get us in trouble."  
  
"It's your best option at the moment." Luna said.  
  
"Alright then, we'll have to chance it then, though coming in by train will ruin the element of surprise."  
  
"What kind of surprise would that be Ranma? He's bound to be expecting us at some point tonight." Ami pointed out.  
  
"Yeah, but he has no idea from what direction we would attack from. Going by train will give him an easy target if he decides to attack it while where just sitting there."  
  
"We'll have to hope he doesn't do that and at least gives us a chance, now let's go before we run out of time." Rei snapped and pushed everyone out of the room in a big jumbled up group and right off the front porch, she smirked as the pile looked up at her.  
  
Down in the pile Ranma sighed and looked around, right into a pair of skimpy black panties as Ami tried to untangled them and had her foot slip as she was standing up, she sat right on Ranma's forehead, giving the girl a spectacular view of the material and what was inside them. "Oh my, I'm sorry Ranma."  
  
"Ungh." Ranma said, her face bright red.  
  
"Are you alright Ranma?" Usagi asked as she stood up and dusted herself off.  
  
"Gurggle...Ungh." Ranma said with a twitch and passed out.  
  
"Oh great, now look what you did." Rei snapped as she looked down at Ranma.  
  
"How is this my fault, Pyro?!!" Usagi snapped. "You're the one that pushed us out the door in the first place, this is your fault!"  
  
"Um..." Ami tried to interrupt them.  
  
"If you weren't such a klutz this wouldn't have happened in the first place!"  
  
"I tripped because someone pushed me!" Usagi yelled as she got in Rei's face.  
  
"YOU'RE A KLUTZ, MEATBALL HEAD!!"  
  
"YOU'RE JUST A BIG MEANIE!!"  
  
"HAH!!"  
  
"Excuse me?" Ami tried again.  
  
"CONTROL FREAK!!"  
  
"OH, THERE'S AN ORIGINAL INSULT!!"  
  
"QUIET!!!!!" Ami yelled and blushed as they turned to look at her. "Thank you, we need to get going, Rei you're the strongest of us, pick up Ranma and lets go."  
  
"Why do I have to do it?" Rei complained and backed away a little when Ami glared at her. "Okay, okay, I'll do it this once."  
  
Ami forced a smile at the two of them. "Excellent, this way we won't be late."  
  
With a loud grunt Rei lifted Ranma over her shoulder and headed out with Usagi helping her a little by adjusting Ranma's clothing. Rei ignored it and whispered to Usagi. "What's up with her, she doesn't usually act like that?"  
  
"I have no idea, maybe we went a little to far."  
  
Rei grunted and nodded.  
  
As they headed down the stairs Grandpa Hino stepped out of the shadows around the shrine with a puzzled look on his face and followed along behind the girls, they were up to something and he wanted to know what it was. His grand daughter was hiding something from him, she was keeping secrets and acting weird. The only time she even acted like herself anymore was when Ranma was around and even then it was just her temper, she didn't like to be shown up by anyone. He was so caught up in his thoughts and using his skills that he failed to noticed a small shadow following him from the roof tops as he followed the girls.  
  
**********  
  
"So what do you think of all this?" The reporter asked lazily.  
  
Officer Ohitori just shrugged and spent a few seconds to light his cigarette. "I've never heard of anything like it before, we'll keep everyone out of Haneda Airport tonight to dispel the situation."  
  
"But what about the threat?" Another question and a series of camera's flashed.  
  
"The only thing I know of that could level the entire city in fire is a nuclear bomb and there aren't any in the country so it has to be a bluff or something else."  
  
"Like what?"   
  
"I have no idea, maybe arson or something and even then we have been on high alert since last night, we haven't found anything out of the ordinary."  
  
"Do you think the Sailor Scouts will show up?"  
  
Officer Ohitori scowled at said reporter. "No I don't think they will really show up, they are nothing but urban legends that are used to inspire little girls. I"ve never met one or heard of one and if they did exist we would have to arrest them for breaking the law. Obstructing Justice, Indecent exposure, and a few other things would be right at the top of the list of things we would use to arrest them."  
  
**********  
  
The girls were slowly moving through the darkened streets as they made their way to the Airport. Rei was still carrying Ranma while Ami and Usagi followed, they all looked a bit nervous. As usual the cats had decided to stay behind and monitor the situation from behind the lines, that was what Usagi had said, though Rei thought they were just being their usual selves and leaving all the heavy fighting up to them. It had been about twenty minutes since they left the Shrine and Rei was starting to have problems holding Ranma, her arms were getting tired.   
  
Rei looked over at Ami to ask her for some assistance and sighed when saw the girl pull her computer out. "What now?"  
  
"Were getting close to the Train station, I need to break into the main server so that I can get it to go where I want it."  
  
"How do you know how to drive a train?" Usagi asked.  
  
"I don't, but the computer does. I saw a documentary on it once, they said that the guys in the engines were more for emergencies than driving them, a large server is installed in each of the cars and allows the electronic signals to control the trains. The all follow the same orders from a main base station. For safety sake a computer runs them through out the city, that way they always follow the same schedule and are always on time."  
  
"Um..." Usagi blinked.  
  
"I see." Rei said.  
  
"Good." Ami said and went back to typing, for a second there she had thought they didn't understand, but that was a clear as she could make it. Getting into the Rail Line's computer was harder than she had thought it would be, but her computer was far more powerful and soon broke through their primitive safeguards. She grinned, by the time they reached the train station she would be able to take them wherever she wanted, this was a part of this job she loved. She had to stifle a loud giggle as the excitement was almost unbarible, but she had learned not to do that around people. They gave her what she called the 'super geek' stare and she had been trying to get away from that for several years now.   
  
Her computer beeped at her and showed a map of the area, there were several moving dots converging on their location. "Move a little faster, we have some people heading our way."  
  
The girls started running, if they hurried they would make it to the train station ahead of their followerd. "Who are they?" Rei asked.  
  
"Looks like national guard units, their foot, but armed."  
  
Usagi whined.  
  
Ranma was still out of it from being ground zero for Ami's panty plant, she still had the weird grin on her face as Rei lugged her around.  
  
A few minutes later Ami led them up a set of stairs to a large building that belonged to the Yamanote JR Line, a circle line that connected a good many of the districts all around Tokyo. It usually ran day and night and had a station at the Airport, but this had been blocked due to the threat to the whole city by Jedite. They entered the huge building, it could hold up to a thousand people easily, and made their way to the platform, Ami was a bit surprised when no one was there to stop them, but shrugged it off as good luck. The train was sitting at it's dock with all the doors open, Ami knew something was wrong when she could tell that it's electric motors were running.  
  
"This isn't right." Rei said as Ami stopped.  
  
"What isn't?" Usagi asked, she was a little spooked to be in such a large building with no one around to even talk to.  
  
"The train is running, I haven't even had a chance to select a train yet."  
  
"Maybe they let it run all the time?" Usagi suggested.  
  
Ami blinked and checked her computer again, she wasn't sure but she had a feeling that Jedite had been expecting them to come this way. "That doesn't feel right Usagi, this place rarely shuts down, but why leave the train running like this with no one here to run it. The government ordered everyone that could to stay home while this mess was dealt with, there were even supposed to be police patrols out tonight to make sure things didn't get turned into one giant mess."  
  
"Luckily we dodged those guys you picked up, Ami. I don't want to think what would have happened if they had caught us." Rei said.  
  
"Well let's board the train." Ami said and headed for a door near the front, to run the train she needed to be near the main computer core.  
  
"What should I do with Ranma?"  
  
"Put her in a seat, there's a water counter over there on the wall I'll grab some water and to try and wake her up." Usagi said.  
  
"Alright, just hurry up." Rei snapped and stepped on to the train, she dropped Ranma into seat by the door just as Usagi returned with a cup full of water.  
  
"Here you go Rei."  
  
"Thanks Usagi." Rei said as the took the water, dipped her fingers in to get them wet, and flicked some water in Ranma's face.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
Rei tried a couple of more times, but Ranma was a notoriously deep sleeper so after about five tries Rei gave up and tossed the cup of water in Ranma's face. She surged awake in an instant, went into a combat stance and took a swing at Rei all in the same movement. Rei ducked and fell to the floor in shock even as Usagi got out of the way, she looked up at Ranma and noticed that she was just then opening her eyes and looking around. Then she glanced down at Rei and blinked a few times, rubbed the water out of her face and smiled.  
  
"Hi Rei."  
  
"Um...hi?" She squeaked.  
  
"Please don't throw water on me, it brings back a bad training accident I went through when I was a kid."  
  
"Another accident Ranma? Don't you have any pleasant childhood memories?" Usagi asked.  
  
"Not many Usagi, not many at all." Ranma snapped and walked off.  
  
A few seconds later the train doors snapped shut and it started to move forward, slowly picking up speed. Ami wandered back into their car, she was reading something on her computer. "That should do it."  
  
"How long will it take us to get there?" Rei asked.  
  
"About fifteen minutes or so, we won't be making any of the usual stops along the way."  
  
"Where's Ranma?"  
  
"She walked out of here a few seconds ago." Usagi said sadly.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Meatball Head reminded her of something from her past that she didn't want to think about." Rei said.  
  
"She'll be alright, you know she doesn't like to talk about her past that much." Ami said.  
  
**********  
  
Jedite was standing on top of the main tower for the Airport using magic to keep the police from noticing him, he had been watching them for some time now. He had a glass of wine in his hand and he was sipping from it from time to time as he considered his plan to kill these girls. This battle had been in the making since the first Scout had shown up and started to interfere with his plans, until then things had been going perfectly. There hadn't even been any resistance strong enough to stop him, energy had been flowing to the Dark Kingdom in huge amounts. Then that first one had shown up, the first one that they had shrugged off as a useless waste of time.  
  
Sailor V  
  
At first she had only been an irritant that tended to get in his way every couple of attacks, then they had wasted a bit of energy and gotten her to leave the country on a wild goose chase. The last he had heard, she was now chasing monsters in England. The decoy youma was using regular criminals warped with a bit of dark energy, the girl had even found some helpers while over there. A couple of police officers and some moron that liked to throw around playing cards as a weapon.  
  
Then he had been given this mission by Queen Beryl and he had come up with several plans to take energy on an even bigger scale, after all they had gotten rid of the only threat that had shown up. That had been the beginning of his downfall and he hadn't even known it. He had made so many mistakes over the last few months and had continued to make them even after he realized them. Then Sailor Moon had shown up and whining about having to fight and throwing his plans out of whack, she should have been easy to fight, right? Oh no, that little girl had foiled so many of his plans in the beginning that for little while.   
  
For a time there is seemed that everything he tried had some kind of connection to this girl, he would show up at someplace completely random and get things going. Pulling in energy for days, then just as he had gotten enough energy to send back to Queen Beryl they would show up and destroy the whole thing. It was enough to make him think of really blowing up the city just to kill them off for the torment he had suffered though because of them. He had no intention of ever being put in that pit again, death would be preferable to drowning in that soupy death trap.  
  
He finished off his wine in a large gulp when he received the mental warning that one of his lookouts had spotted some girls heading this way. He turned and opened a portal and stepped through to appear high over the Airport. He could see all the police and national guard that had taken up positions around the area. With a whispered spell he reached out and touched them all, at first they had no idea what was going on, but they quickly found themselves in the grips of the spell. Almost as one they all staggered around and collapsed into a deep slumber.  
  
Then he reached out and touched the mind of the Youma he had brought along to help him with this fight. With another gesture all the humans he had affected vanished, leaving their clothes behind. The Youma wasn't all that intelligent, but he made up for it with a very useful ability to call on. "Master?" It asked in it's dry voice.  
  
"Follow the plan I gave you." Jedite snapped.  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
Minutes later Jedite smiled as he saw the that the police were back on their feet and walking around just like they had been. "This plan is full proof, there's no way these idiotic girls can get away from me this time. My Youma will take care of the Moon, Mercury, and Mars easily leading them into a trap. Leaving the Red Headed Bitch to me, she will be on her knees begging for death by the time I'm done with her!!"  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"  
  
**********  
  
"...list of things we would use to arrest them."  
  
Back at Police head quarters, Officer Ohitori's face could been seen on the large TV screen taking up one wall as he talked to the press. His boss was banging his head against a wall at that point and wondering how this moron had been placed in a position of authority and why he was answering questions like this on live TV. They gave classes on how to do these things every few months, simple answers like 'no comment' and 'back off there is nothing to see here'. Questions could be answered all the criminals were caught and dealt with, he stopped banging his head and moved to make a phone call.  
  
"Hello?" Said a mysterious voice.  
  
"Get that idiot off TV or heads will roll, the man is causing a panic."  
  
"Understood sir."  
  
"He is to report to me before the hour is out."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
Godi grunted and slammed the phone down as he rubbed his head, he encouraged original thinking, but this was pure stupidity that could only cause more problems than it solved. He wished he was still in command of the Pat Labor project again, at least then he'd had a bit of say in what happened around him them. He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a bottle of red liquid, twisted the top off and took a long pull. It was drained seconds later and slammed down on the desk with a sigh.   
  
"Damn it, can't I even get decent fruit juice anymore? Fucking doctors and their new diet regulations. Humph!! Natsumi, Miyuki get in here!!  
  
There is a crash in the outer office, a few seconds later the two girls walk into the office pretending as if nothing had happened. "You wanted to see us sir?" Miyuki asked as she adjusted her long brown hair.  
  
"I need you to go down and get me some more drinks." Godi said.  
  
Miyuki nodded and smiled.  
  
"You've got to be kidding?" Nasumi snapped, she looked insulted.  
  
"Do I look like I'm kidding." Godi said with a completely straight face.  
  
"We're police officers, not errand girls!!" Nasumi yelled in his face.  
  
"You're not doing anything of interest anyway."  
  
"Get it yourself!!"  
  
"I'm not allowed to leave, you are."  
  
"...but, I'm thirsty."  
  
"Here you go sir." Miyuki said as she sat some more bottles down on Godi's desk.  
  
"Thank you dear." Godi said happily.  
  
Natsumi face faulted with a groan.  
  
**********  
  
"Are you feeling better Ranma?" Usagi asked, tears in her eyes.  
  
"Yeah, don't worry about it." Ranma said with a forced smile as she reentered the car where the girls were sitting. It was weird to be on a train with no one else on it, something she had never seen before.  
  
"I'm sorry I won't ask about that stuff again."  
  
Ranma shrugged and made her way over to a seat by Ami. "How much longer until we reach the Airport?"  
  
"Just a few more minutes."  
  
"Are all of you sure you want to do this?" Ranma asked.  
  
"We've already discussed this Ranma." Rei said.  
  
"I know, but I feel bad taking you into this fight." She refused to look the girls in the eye as they gave her a weird look. "You've all got power, but this will be a fight that is a lot more dangerous than those early ones you were in, I don't wan to place you in danger."  
  
"We have to do this as a team Ranma, Jedite challenged all of us." Rei snapped back.  
  
"Alright, I won't bring it up again, just be ready for anything. Jedite is going to pull anything to win this."  
  
Rei shot Usagi a worried glance, but saw that the girl was more worried about Ranma than the upcoming fight. They were rounding a curve when she felt the wave of evil that was hovering over the whole Airport. She sat up and looked around as if she expected to fight it off that instant. Ranma and Usagi were giving her a weird look as the came to her feet and started to look around. Then Ami's computer started to beep and they knew it was time to get to work, even Ranma could feel the difference now.  
  
"I'm picking up multiple readings just ahead." Ami said as the train suddenly slowed to as top at a dock.  
  
All was quiet at first, but as they moved to the doors they could see dozens of police officers collecting on the dock to arrest them. Ranma cursed and crossed her arms, she had no intention of allowing these idiots to take her in this easily. She looked around as the others sighed in defeat, outside the police closed on the train with drawn weapons, but Ranma smirked as she saw a way out of this.  
  
"COME OUT OF THE TRAIN WITH YOUR HANDS UP GIRLS, YOUR UNDER ARREST!!" Called out a dry voice.  
  
"What do we do?" Usagi whispered, she looked nervous.  
  
"Ami, you said that you were picking up multiple readings? Could it be that the police are possessed or something?" Ranma asked.  
  
After several seconds of typing Ami nodded. "Yes, but those aren't police at all. I'm reading a bunch of...sand?"  
  
"Their like moving statues." Usagi said as she looked out the window's nervously.  
  
"What were you planning Ranma?" Rei asked. "I've got a plan that might work too."  
  
"Look how their trying to surround us, their really spread out, I was planning on just running through them."  
  
Rei rolled her eyes. "Your fast enough to do that Ranma, and maybe Usagi here who has to do a three mile dash every morning, but me and Ami aren't that fast."  
  
"Hey!!" Usagi yelled.  
  
Rei pulled out a batch of ofuda and thumped them against Ranma's forehead a few times and smirked. "These should take care of the problem."  
  
"Ofuda? Where in the world did you get those?" Ranma asked as she rubbed her forehead and glared at the girl.  
  
"I'm a Shinto shrine maiden, I always carry some of these around with me."  
  
"Wai!!" Usagi glomped Rei's waist. "Your the greatest Rei!"  
  
Rei's eye twitched as she gave the blonde the evil eye. "Um...yeah."  
  
"I know we can win this now!" Usagi crowed as she let go and stalked off the train with a confident step. Ranma, Rei, and Ami all looked at each other and sighed as about three seconds later they heard Usagi scream. "WHAAAAAAAA GET'EM OFF GET'EM OFF GET'EM OFF!!" Usagi yelled as she ran back and forth in front of the train waving her arms in a hysterical display and pulling several of the Youma men with her in a long chain.  
  
"Well at least she has spirit, can't say she has brains, but she definitely has what it takes to get through this."  
  
"You want me to help her out?" Rei asked as she watched Usagi's panicked flight around the whole area, running over the moving statues.   
  
"Check that out, she's taken out over half of them already." Ami said as she ran a scan on her computer again.  
  
They stepped off the train a few seconds later and saw that Usagi was laid out on top of a high pile of unmoving sand statues, gasping for air and as usual making a scene. Ranma smiled and bounced on over to pat the girl on the shoulder. "Thanks Usagi, that was great work!"  
  
Usagi moaned.  
  
"I mean you took them all out and didn't even have to transform or anything, even I planned on transforming before running though all of them. Great job!"  
  
Usagi whimpered as Rei tossed several of the Ofuda on the pile and watched as the whole thing glowed for a few seconds before dying with a flare of light. "Thanks Usagi, I didn't want to use up all my Ofuda."  
  
"Amazing Usagi, I didn't know you had it in you." Ami said quietly as she walked over and stood next to Ranma and Rei.  
  
With a grin Ranma pulled Usagi to her feet and patted her on the shoulder. "Alright everybody, it's time to transform and go kick Jedite's ass!"  
  
"MARS POWER, MAKE UP!!"  
  
"MERCURY POWER, MAKE UP!!"  
  
"MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE UP!!"  
  
Ranma didn't like to transform unless she had to, every time she did it set in motion something she wanted to avoid. She grit her teeth as the others looked at her in confusion and sighed as she held up her arms and made her gold and black bracers appear. "SOL CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!!"   
  
This feeling of pure ecstasy filled Ranma, nearly making her eyes roll back in her head, and she moaned as she was lifted into the air, the bracers flare with a blinding light, when it recedes Ranma is clad in a fuku unlike any have ever seen before, reddish black leather body suit, a red and black skirt, a green front bow and a white back bow with the ribbons trailing nearly to the floor. She had on knee high reddish black boots, the arm bands now decorated with little crescent moons, and a tiara with a ruby in the center pulsing slowly with power. Strong and fast, powerful and unstoppable enough to take on all of the demons in Jedite's arsenal.   
  
"Whoa!!" Ranma said with a blush, that had been even more intense than the last time she transformed.  
  
"Sailor Sun, are you all....EEPPP!!" Sailor Moon squeaked as Ranma gave her this look that chilled her to the bone.  
  
"I hate that ridiculous name."  
  
"What do we call you then? Baka?" Mars snapped and smirked.  
  
"Call me Starfire, it still suggests the sun and allows me to keep some pride without using that stupid name."  
  
"STARFIRE?!!"  
  
"Yeah, I think it sounds cool." Starfire grinned and fussed with her hair absently, then looked at her arm as if it had just betrayed her.  
  
"How in the world did you get that weird version of the fuku?" Mercury asked as she scanned Ranma.  
  
"When I was given the Pen it changed to these Bracers, Pluto said it had addapted to make me a modern version of a Sailor Scout. I like the power up, but the even this new outfit is a pain in the ass, I hate it." Ranma muttered as she tried to pull the skirt down a little to cover her legs.  
  
"Are you kidding, you look great in that Starfire." Moon gushed.  
  
Starfire shrugged. "You should know by now that I really don't like to wear skirts."  
  
"Don't think of them as skirts, these are like an ice skaters outfit more than anything else. They look good and are easy to move around in, they work." Mars pointed out, she didn't like them either, but didn't want to admit it to the others.  
  
"Well I still don't like them, but at least I'm not running around in a Harem outfit or something." Starfire shuddered.  
  
All the girls nodded.  
  
**********  
  
Jedite was looking down on the Scouts as they ran out of the building and started to looking around for him, they split up just outside the door and each headed across the field to a different landing strip. He was in a pretty good mood considering he had just lost yet another Youma, they had all transformed right when he was watching them from the shadows and that had negated the magic that made up their cloaking field. He had memorized their faces and been surprised to see that all of them were mere children, that was a blow to his ego that had hurt. They were barely out of diapers and they had been taking down his toughest Youma with relative ease.  
  
He glared at the bask of the one he wanted the most, she had said her name was Ranko in one of their last encounters. Yet the girls had been calling her Ranma just before they transformed and started using their Scout names, he wasn't sure which name was the real one but it wouldn't matter by the time this ended, she would be dead. He looked over each of the Scouts as they ran, what would be the easiest way to kill them and still save a bit of energy? After a few seconds he decided to try a fun way to kill them, running them over with the very planes they were here to safeguard.   
  
Magic flared around his hands like lightning and soared into the sky all over the Airport striking a dozen planes at once. They all started up to whine as their engines built up power, he smiled as all four girls skidded to a halt and started looking around in confusion. "Don't stop now Scouts, we still have time to play before the time of your deaths arrives. These are my new toys, play with as many as you want!!" Jedite yelled out, using magic to make his voice echo all over the Airport. He didn't care who heard him, the sleep spell would last for several days and had an area effect of several miles, so there was no one around but the Scouts and had excluded them from the spell.   
  
This was a personal fight, they had caused him to much embarressment to get off with a simple death that would have awaited them if he had caught them with spell. He had to crush them in battle, it was the only way to regain his favor with Queen Beryl and cement his position among the Army once more. He laughed as the Scouts started running from the planes, the one in red looked like she was about to blast one of the smaller one's as it chased after her, but it was on her before she could charge up a blase.   
  
"Better not destoy one of those planes Sailor Mars, who knows, the city might make you pay for it!" Jedite yelled and saw her stumble to a stop and start cursing. "BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"  
  
Down below Starfire cursed as well as she rolled out of the way of a tire taller than she was and let the big 747 cruise by her. Staying out of their way was easy, but there were three planes cruising after each of them at once. That was making them hard to dodge as they came at them from three different directions at once. After several minutes of this and watching as Sailor Moon was nearly run over on at least six different occasions, Starfire was beginning to seriously consider blowing up the planes. Then her communicator started to beep and she pulled it out in mid dodge as and idea occurred to her.  
  
"I'm a little busy right now, what?"  
  
"We can't destroy the planes so we need to escape them." Mercury said to all of them.  
  
"Escape? I just thought of a way to do that." Starfire said.   
  
"How?!" Mars yelled.  
  
"It takes them forever to turn around, lead them all to the end of your strip, the very edge, and then jump up on a wing and run down the main body of the plane. It should run right off the edge of the landing strip and get stuck."  
  
"D'OH!!" Said the other three girls and instantly started to do just that.  
  
Starfire tapped into her Ki and raced down the long pavement of the landing strip, she was moving so fast that it was hard to tell where she was. Up above Jedite just watched and wondered what they were up to, it looked like they were about to give up so he sped the planes up so that when they ran the girls over it would leave a nice looking smear on the tarmac, he grinned. That changed in an instant though as Starfire casually hopped up on the wing and dashed down the main body of the plane, hopped onto a tail fin and to the ground. The plane right off the pavement with a sickening crunch, Jedite tried to stop the planes and get them reoriented, but the strain was incredible.  
  
He had to land on the ground to call forth the amount of power he needed just to stop the planes, then he heard three more crashes and realized that they had fooled him and went red with rage. Then the unexpected happened, something flew down out of the sky and slammed against his shield in a show of sparks as it was disintegrated on contact. What surprised him was that it hit with so much force that it knocked him back several steps. He cursed and turned just in time to see a whole wave of....roses slammed into his shield. Each of them gave off a concussive blast that seemed pushed him back more and more.  
  
The strain of keeping control of the planes was making it hard for him to keep up his defenses he hadn't expected this fool to challenge him like this. He always showed up when the blonde one was in trouble, so why was he attacking like this, if his defenses had been less than they were he would have been in trouble. Jedite snarled and started crackling with electric like energy. "Tuxedo Mask."  
  
"You won't get away with this Jedite, your Evil stops here." Mask said as he pulled his cane and held it like a sword.  
  
"You just signed your death warrant."  
  
"TUXEDO MASK!!" Sailor Moon yelled, she was to far away from them to much more than that.   
  
Jedite materialized a sword and launched himself forward, he hadn't expected to fight this one. Of all the Scouts, Mask was the most cowardly, striking from the shadows and throwing flowers to distract his Youma while the little girls did all the work. He blinked in surprise as his sword was blocked and Mask kicked him in the gut with a powerful kick that sent hm stumbling back again. It seemed there was more to this idiot than he had though, but it wasn't good enough.  
  
Tuxedo Mask crept forward and willed his cane to extend, it slammed into Jedite's stomach and blew the air out of his lungs. He glared into a Jedite's eyes as they turned even more insane than they already were, the man started to grin as he slowly stood up. It was quite obvious he hadn't done as much damage as he had though. They yelled and slammed together again, trading blows for several seconds, Jedite's grin stayed plastered to his face as they moved back and forth. Then it happened, Jedite suddenly did a spin kick when Mask was over extended and kicked him in the head.  
  
Dazed, Tuxedo Mask stumbled back as Jedite knocked the cane out of his hand and slammed the pommel of his sword into his head, he dropped like a stone. Instead of killing him, Jedite kicked him in the stomach with a magically enhanced kick and sent him flying out into the bay. Just to add insult to injury and to keep the moron out of his hair, Jedite fired off several blasts of dark energy. Mask landed just before the blasts arrived, but when they hit the water they exploded and sent a fountain of water nearly fifty feet into the air. Then he turned to look at the Scouts at they got near enough for them to hear him.   
  
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!" Sailor Moon screamed.  
  
"Ooops! I don't know my own strength, BWHAHAHAHA!! Now it's your turn, who want to go first?" Jedite asked as if he was the friendliest person in the world.  
  
"You'll pay for that Jedite!" Mars yelled.  
  
"Bring it on girlly, all of your are going to die and I plan to do it with my bare hands." Jedite snarled. "You won't have the chance to ruin anymore of my plans."  
  
"FIRE SOUL!!" Mars yelled and fired off a fire ball.  
  
Jedite just sneered and batted the attack out of the air, he was running at nearly his full power and these girls didn't stand a chance against him. "Is that all you can do girl? For some reason I expected more out of you, killing all my Youma and all. Shall we play some more, I'm not quite ready to kill you just yet, you haven't suffered enough."  
  
In a black and red streak Starfire ran forward, she had been waiting for this fight since the challenge had been make. Ranma jumped nearly seven foot into the air as she attacked and tried to kick Jedite in the head, but he just spun out of the way. She landed and bounced, this time staying close to the ground and attempted to sweep his feet, but had to roll out of the way as he attempted to take her head off. Then things got weird as Jedite charged up his power again and started throwing blasts of energy at her, they exploded all over as she dodged and twisted out of the way of everyone that came close.  
  
"You have to do better than that Ranko, your the whole reason for this fight and I plan on breaking you before I kill you."  
  
"You don't stand a chance against me."  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAA!!!" Jedite screamed.  
  
Starfire hopped up into the air and used one of the explosions to cloak her presence, she hadn't had a chance to practice some of her magical attacks yet, but Jedite was getting on her nerves. She reached deep into her body and touched her magic for the first time since Jusenkyo and felt it surge through her like an uncontrollable river of power. Her aura swirled around her and lit up the area in a bright silver glow as she locked eyes with Jedite and saw him look at her in shock.   
  
"SILVER METAL STARLIGHT!!"   
  
The small ruby on Starfire's tiara flared up and started to glow as all that power was channeled to the small jewel. Then a beam of mercury like energy fired out as Starfire screamed in fury, it sailed across the short distance between them and slammed into Jedite's shield. The impact sounded like a one ton metal I-beam hitting the ground and hit with enough force to pushed him back several feet, but Starfire's eyes narrowed as she saw that the shield hold against the blast. She landed glared at Jedite, that blast had been nearly twenty times more powerful than what Mask threw with his roses, it should have gotten him easily. Then she saw his eyes as they contacted hers and he smiled at her evilly as the smoke and dust from his blasts swirled around him.  
  
"Your pathetic, I expected more from you than a weak attack like that." Jedite said scornfully and started spinning his sword again. "Where's all your skills and power now Red, they certainly aren't helping you out of this mess are they?"  
  
"You haven't seen anything yet." Starfire said, that sword of his had to go though, he had nearly had her on more than one occasion and she knew from experience just how painful that thing could make things with just a simple scratch. It could get through his shield and easily get her, there had to be a limit to his power. The rest of the Scouts came running up as she was about to attack again and Mercury waved her computer about to get her to notice something.  
  
"Starfire, he's using your own energies against you."   
  
"Huh?"   
  
Mars nodded. "When Tuxedo Mask attacked he was using some kind force attack according to Mercury, when they hit it was like using a baseball bat or something. You are using pure energy with that Silver Metal Starlight attack of yours and he's using that to fuel his shield."  
  
"Correct, we need to take him down in some way that doesn't use magic. That ability is also why he was able to defeat my attack as well." Mercury added.  
  
Starfire relaxed a little as they talked, though she kept an eye on Jedite out of the corner of her eye. "Were you able to come up with anything?"  
  
"I have a plan, but it will require all of us working together to do it." Mercury said and started to explain the plan.  
  
After a couple of minutes Starfire nodded, though she wondered why Jedite was just standing there letting them talk as if he wasn't in any danger at all. "That sounds like it will work, but how do we pull it off? The timing would have to be almost perfect for it to work."  
  
"That's why need to use teamwork for this." Mars said.  
  
"Alright then, lets get to work and see if we can pull this off and get out of here."  
  
"RIGHT!" They all said.  
  
"Besides I'm hungry enough to gnaw on a table leg or something." Starfire said, the girls all moaned. "Heh, that can wait for later though."  
  
"Are you done talking yet, I'm getting bored just standing over here doing nothing." Jedite called.  
  
"Fine then, we'll attack." Starfire said. "GO!!"  
  
"FIRE SOUL!!"  
  
"SILVER METAL STARLIGHT!!"  
  
"Oh please, come up with something better than this you wimps!" Jedite called as he batted both blasts out of that air.  
  
"SHABON SPRAY!!" Mercury yelled and centered the wave of fog on Jedite and cut him off from the world.  
  
"What is this supposed to accomplish you Twits?!!" Jedite yelled.  
  
Then he realized that he couldn't figure out where he was and understood what the true nature of Mercury's attack was. It was a cover that cast a kind of confusion on whoever it was cast on, warping his perceptions so much that finding his way out of the fog was nearly impossible. Luckily his shield had...taken the blast of magic for him, though it still messed with his mind a little. He started laughing as he realized that they had figured how his shield worked and did this on purpose.  
  
"I'm impressed, I didn't think you had what it took to figure it out!" Jedite yelled.  
  
"You ain't seen nothing yet!" Echoed Starfire's voice from all around him, it left this silence that was almost so think he could feel it on his skin.   
  
To dispel the fog he had to drop is shield, it had blocked the freezing aspect of the fog and turned the shield into low pleasure wave that was maintain the fog. Without the shield it would lose it's focus and quickly vanish, but would leave him open for a few precious seconds. He banished the sword to subspace and raised his arms, several dozen blasts of explosive energy fired out to rain down around him in all directions. The instant the first explosion went off he dropped the shield and started to weave a dispel magic spell.   
  
Then he realized his mistake as Sailor Mars ran right by him and slapped something on his back that burned by like fire and froze all the muscles in his body. Then Starfire ran by and decked him across the face, the other one, Mercury was a few seconds after that and she hit him in the same way from the opposite direction and he remained rooted to the spot. "What the hell did you do?!!"  
  
"Hi!" Sailor Moon yelled as she ran by without touching him and vanished from sight. "Bye!"  
  
As the last of the fog finally dissipated enough to see he heard the whine of an engine and his eyes tripped in size. He had put the planes on automatic when he started fighting Tuxedo Mask, this would make them follow and run over any of the scouts if they got to close. Sailor Moon had just run by him like a bat out of hell, he nearly fainted, this was going to hurt. The front of the plane passed over him and the edge of the wheel clipped his back and nearly wrenched his spine out of his body, it also dislodged whatever Mars had done to him and he fell the ground.  
  
"Damn it didn't work!" Starfire yelled as she ran back to Jedite and kicked him in the stomach. She concentrated and built up as much power as she could, Mars, and Moon all ran up and charged up their attacks as well. Jedite took this as an opportunity to crawl to his feet, blood was running down his chin and he knew he had several broken ribs. Then his senses noticed that someone was watching this fight, he wasn't sure who, but knew that they were...amused.  
  
"FIRE SOUL!!"  
  
"SILVER METAL STARLIGHT!!"  
  
"MOON TIARA ACTION!!"  
  
The first two hit him in the stomach and sent him reeling, he barely managed to duck the magically powered Tiara as it screamed right for his neck. Then his world went dark as he felt a tug at his soul and knew that Queen Beryl had just recalled him, he screamed in pain as all his atoms were slowly unraveled and yanked back to the Dark Kingdom. He appeared in the main gallery where he had met with Beryl so many times before, it took all his remaining strength to remain standing and not pass out right there. Her angry eyes bored into his and he knew that there wouldn't be any more chances, he had sealed his fate and that left him with only one option.  
  
**********  
  
Sailor Moon ran over to the edge of the bay where Tuxedo Mask had been thrown in the water. "Do you think he survived?"  
  
"I don't know." Starfire said. She didn't like the guy, but that didn't mean she wanted him to dead.  
  
"I hope he's alright." Mars said as she stepped up next to Moon.  
  
"Um..." Started Mercury, but she was interrupted as the water near a dock about ten yards away from them broke and Tuxedo Mask climbed out and coughed up a lot of water.  
  
"TUXEDO MASK!!" Sailor Moon and Mars yelled and ran over to him.  
  
"As I was about to say, Tuxedo Mask is over there, he has suffered some light wounds but nothing life threatening." Mercury finished.  
  
Starfire crossed her arms. "Oh great, a happy ending.'  
  
"Happy endings are always a good thing Starfire."  
  
Humph!"  
  
**********  
The End of Book One *Jedite*  
  
Notes - This is one huge project, I've just finished with Jedite and have already done close to 550kb worth of work. Each of the Generals is to have his own book as with several chapters, coming up next will be Nephlite of course and he requires a bit of work. I have to figure out if I want him to go after Molly, who I haven't introduced just yet, or Ranma since they would get along with each other. Let me know how you want it to go, but be warned if you pick Ranma it won't be Ranma suddenly turning into a girl that likes Men, but as friends as she tries to understand her feelings for him and why she has such weird reactions when he is around. Let me know which would be better.  
  
I made some mistakes during this, I know of a couple of them and plan to fix them eventually. Shampoo is also a candidate for Nephlite, maybe a love triangle or something. Yes I'm also bringing Cologne into this, this story is a mix of Ranma and Sailor Moon and needs them as characters, I plan to bring everybody in eventually it will just take time and their parts will be a bit different than normal.   
  
Certain parts of the Nephlite story will be mixed the Ranma one to make them merge a little better and other parts will only be mentioned in passing. All of the main parts are planned so don't worry about me missing something big or skipping over it, there are only five main episodes in this part anyway. I would also like to know if you want me to detail more of the Dark Kingdom like I did when Jedite was in that pit and how they treat each other.  
  
Finally, I'm going to take a break from this story for awhile and get recharged for the next arc. I've got writers block something major and it has slowed me down a lot more than I expected and that means that a lot of the fun of writing is gone, I had to force myself to put down almost every word of this chapter and disliked most of it. Those parts that were sillier than normal were my attempts to get over my writers block and they worked a little, but not enough to keep it up for long. So I need a break and will be moving on to Uncles, Replacement, and Golden Opportunity for awhile while working on a summary for the next chapter of Princess of the Moon.  
  
So long for now...the part below was one of the scenes I cut from the final draft because it was unusable.   
  
**********  
Something for fun ^_^  
Typical Anime Strangeness?  
  
In another part of the city thousands of Sailor Moon Otaku were having a convention at a local hotel. Watching the newest episodes, playing the video games, and ogling the scantily clad girls in action, they were Otaku after all. They were all in an auditorium watching the news cast about the fight. They were also memorizing the name of the Anti-Christ and making plans to pay him a visit some time soon. This policeman would not be allowed to arrest heir goddess in pigtails, they had would make sure her young nubile body was there for all to see. The worst thing was that these were thousands of full grown men dressed up in costumes from the show. Playing with dolls, dreaming about being one of the Scouts and fighting for Love and Justice, even the gods shuddered at the sight.  
  
"...list of things we would use to arrest them." Said the I Max'ed size screen where the interview was being broadcast inside and auditorium.  
  
A mass growl of anger filled the air for blocks around the hotel, employee's could be seen fleeing the structure in a state of panic. Soon hordes of really ugly men in skimpy fuku were seen marching to war out the front doors, brandishing well polished scepters, hand held weapons, and other things that were best left unmentioned. Screams of fright filled the night air as the horde made it's way across the city in a direct course towards Haneda Airport. Singing filled the air as they called upon their song of inspiration.   
  
Moon Revenge  
  
Grasping tightly to a love you've finally found your way to, you rest gently in a brief sleep. Laying a goodbye kiss on your closed eyelid, I left you behind in the garden of time.   
  
Love can't continue as a mere dream But if you lust after it, it becomes a beautiful but hollow shell. But still...  
  
If that's what you want, then chase after me. That kiss is a red tattoo, a tattoo that engraves a prophecy of destiny I'll know with just one look There's a tattoo that hurts in the shape of your lips; you can't hide it. It's Moon Revenge, wooo...  
  
Auras drawn by each other, even when enveloped by darkness cannot be snuffed out, and will not falter.  
  
I can still see our parting so clearly, and it burns. Yet, I hope the next one fate draws me to could be you again.  
  
The deeper the love, the greedier it is I even want to bind up every sigh you make. It's irrational, but still...  
  
Climbing to the top of the whirlpool of light, Crimson memories are a poisonous tattoo a tattoo that shows the chaos of the future.  
  
When we are together, the tattoo hurts in the shape of your lips until we shatter. It'd be nice if you'd keep holding me. It's Moon Revenge, wooo...  
  
If that's what you want, then chase after me. That kiss is a red tattoo, a tattoo that engraves a prophecy of destiny I'll know with just one look There's a tattoo that hurts in the shape of your lips; you can't hide it. It's Moon Revenge, wooo...   
  
There was nothing more frightening than an Otaku on the war path. ^_^;;  
  
**********  
  
These are the Lyrics to "Moon Revenge" Here's the link to where I got them. http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/smoon/smmonrev.htm  
  
Yamanote JR Line - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2017.html  
  
I got some episode information here - http://www.tcp.com/doi/smoon/tv.html 


	10. Chapter 08

My site - http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/  
  
**********  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 08 - Hurt Feelings  
By Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c)2002  
**********  
  
Ever have the skin flayed off your body in one inch segments? Jedite wasn't sure where Queen Beryl had come up with the idea, but that was exactly what was happening to him at that very moment. At least that is what his brain was telling him as he screamed and writhed in phantom pain, she had cast a spell on him to make sure he felt every cut and burn that his mind was telling him about. At the same time he was suspended above the floor of the throne room as Black lighting swirled around his body and enacted even more of his punishment for failing to kill the girls. He had thousands of years of practice when it came to being ruthless and evil all in the name of his Queen, but all of that paled in comparison to what Queen Beryl could do when she was really angry and right now she was very, very angry with him and his constant failure.  
  
It had only been an hour or so since she had pulled him away from the battle and he had spent that whole time in constant pain and agony. What had him worried was that this was the little stuff, the things she did to those while she was trying to come up with a decent punishment. With her this angry Jedite was pretty sure he knew what she was going to do with him and it frightened him more than Matallia did and that was saying something. He screamed some more and strained against the bonds hold his body in place, unable to even think straight for several seconds as the pain overwhelmed his mind. It ended eventually, but he didn't know how long it lasted, feeling one's ribs pulled out one at a time tended to be quite painful.   
  
Illusions and mind traps had always been Queen Beryl's domain and she used them well, cloaking herself in various ways and knowing how to cloud men's minds and such. He had been a victim of such a spell several thousand years ago and hadn't been able to break her hold him yet, not that he tried much anymore, after all this time redemptions was more of dream than something that he could achieve on his own and it wasn't like the others would help him out. He hated what he had become, but used it to his advantage whenever he could, that was why he had plans in place for just such an occasion that he hadn't even told the other General's about. He had used his powers to set it up the day they broke through the barrier and made their first trip to Earth, cast all the spells, and then erased most of the deed from his mind so that his plans could not be divulged under torture like what what's being done to him. The only thing he could remember was what activated it and why he had put it in place.  
  
If his plans went into effect, it meant that he had 'died' at the hands of one of the Generals, Queen Beryl, or Matallia herself. Those were the main five on his mental list, though there were about twenty others that he had added over the last few months so that all his bases were covered. Though considering his luck lately the damned thing might not work, but it was all he had left now that Beryl had stripped him of his powers and position. His Youma Army had been decimated and virtually destroyed the instant Beryl had recalled him, being split up into three groups and spread out among the other Generals as nothing better than slaves and cannon fodder.   
  
He moaned in pain as he felt the magic that was sparking the pain centers of his mind surge for a half second before they slowly fade away and vanish, slumping against the force holding him because his body didn't have the energy left to hold him in place, he wasn't all that surprised when this too vanished. Hitting the floor from ten feet above it wasn't a lot of fun when he did it face first, so he moaned in pain as he lay there. From the feel of things his nose was broken and he could feel the blood gathering up behind the blockage in his nose and hoped he didn't drown on his own blood, the plan wouldn't work then, he didn't have his own name on the list.  
  
"Get up Jedite!" Queen Beryl snapped.  
  
When he hadn't moved after a couple of seconds, two of the larger guard Youma stomped forward and dragged him to his feet and held him in place by the back of his shirt. He groaned as his hair was grabbed and pulled back with enough force to nearly rip it out of his head, Beryl was glaring at him. The look he was getting was one he had seen several times over the years of his enforced exile to this dimension, one that he had dreaded getting, but secretly hoped for as well. It meant his plan would work so long as no one had messed up the spells without him noticing and Kunzite was the only one with the skill to do that with is forecasting magic. They got along as well as the other General's and he figured things were safe.  
  
"You have proven to be a waste of time Jedite, you showed lots of promise over the years, but the instant things got tuff you seemed to cave in without much of a fight." Beryl said.  
  
Jedite would have rolled his eyes, but thought such a maneuver would only make things even worse than they were. "I..."  
  
"SHUT UP!!" Beryl snapped.  
  
To Jedite's surprise, the guard holding him reached around and...broke his jaw with its fingers. He would have screamed, but his mouth would no longer open and all he could let out was a loud moan of pain, it didn't even have to be faked. The first signs of panic were just beginning to set into his brain as the pain hit him, tears threatened to trickle out of his eyes and he prayed his final plan worked. He had been protected by his magic for so long that he had forgotten what it was like to be without it at a time like this. He had to force his eyes to raise and meet Beryl's again as she charged up the black crystal ball in front of her, it was crackling with dark energy and making her freakish beauty even more menacing.  
  
"I don't care what you have to say about your actions Jedite, you were given plenty of warning and told what would happen if you failed to obey me. Look where your arrogance has gotten you now Jedite, stripped of everything that could save you, no powers, no magical items, nothing at all. I have thought about this for the last few hours and decided on your punishment. During the course of your assignment you have cost us from getting the energy we needed to take over this world, you have cost us high ranking Youma like Titus, and you have wasted your powers playing around with little girls instead of focusing on your mission. I have therefore decided that you will be placed in 'Oblivion!"  
  
Jedite winced as the Youma around him started to mumble in fear, that was about what he had expected of course, but he still didn't like the idea of it being used on him, it left things open for Beryl to retrieve him at some later date to use incase something bad happened. His plan would make that impossible, but she didn't nee do know that. She had always horded supplies for when things were hard to get and personnel fit that bill, there were hundreds of low level Youma that had been placed in Oblivion as well for when she would need them. Her hand reached out and seemed to lightly touch the black crystal in front of her, it sparked for several seconds as it built up power. He tried to get out of the guard Youma's hands, but they held him in a grip tighter than steel and in his weakened condition that was all that was needed, then the crystal flared and fired a wave of energy at him and the guard threw him into it. His world went black as the energy hit him and he felt his body jerk to a stop, it wouldn't move or budge in anyway and he knew he was inside a crystal and it felt like he was underwater with all sound and sight cut off.  
  
Then the pain hit him and it was like he was swimming in molten lava, but he endured and concentrated everything he had left on his emergency plan, he had to work fast or the Oblivion would over take him permanently. It was supposed to activate several minutes after he ceased to be and being subjected to 'oblivion', forever locked in a crystal prison and unable to do anything about it counted quite high on his list, even his thoughts were slowed down and there was only a few minutes available before he wouldn't be able to do anything. Then as the pain slowly faded to a background annoyance he had to wait an eternity for the tug on his soul that he had been waiting for. Seconds later he realized that he had made a minor mistake, just a tiny one, but it was enough to cause him more problems and he silently cursed to himself for not thinking of it.  
  
He let out a silent scream.  
  
**********  
  
*Two Hours earlier*  
  
Nodoka Saotome hadn't enjoyed life much over the past ten years as she tried time and again to track down her son, only to be blocked at every hint and clue she came across by a man she despised with every fiber entire being. She had been forced to make compromises and deals with people so that she could keep up the chase against a foe that could use the law to block her every move. Even her family could only do a tiny bit to help her when the government told you in a polite way to give it up or else. So she had taken a job that would allow her to do two things at once, look for her son and make enough money to be considered relatively rich and be able to support an underground search outside of the law. She was an Artifact Hunter, going all over the world in search of various items and using her time while out of the country to do some quite searching for her son with her own money and supplies.  
  
She had gotten pretty good at finding things over the years and learning about a world that most didn't have a clue about. Most of her work kept her outside of Japan, though every now and then she would get a request for something that would lead her back to the country of her birth. That was why she was currently standing in the shadows of a building situated at the Airport where she had just got done witnessing something that she thought she would never see. A Magic battle between the warriors of an extinct kingdom and an unknown man with incredible amount of power who had been out smarted by his opponents.  
  
Now that everything was done she had taken a chance to pull her binoculars out to watch the girls talking among themselves after the battle, at their feet was a man dressed in a tuxedo of all things and who appeared to be injured. If she hadn't seen the beginning of the fight when she first arrived she would have laughed them all off as crack pots, but they all seemed to wield around a kind of magic with elegance and poise of professionals. It had been the most wonderful thing she had ever seen and knew that these girls were going to change the world if they kept this up. They all had a kind of presence that could be felt even at this distance, she was already magically sensitive due to the nature of her family and some of the training she had undergone over the years, but this put her miniscule magical abilities to shame. It was like comparing a torch to a two story high bon fire, they had her out gunned at every turn except one.  
  
It was painfully obvious that these girls were completely untrained fighters and was placing them at a disadvantage, only the red headed girl seemed to have any ability and that was in hand to hand combat only. Thought that ability was quite substantial, she had put that guy to shame in pure skill. She was good to, but Nodoka didn't know whether to acknowledge the girl's skill or her power up for her abilities. What had her more shocked about the girl was that she was using Anything Goes maneuvers that she had seen her estranged husband use and those weren't things that could be learned through trial and error, they had to be taught. There was something in the back of her mind that was trying to point something out as well, but she just couldn't place what it could be.  
  
Hopefully it would come to her eventually, but for now she had other things to worry about. She had been at home working on one of her projects when she heard the challenge from that other magic user to the Scouts and the consequences of their failure if they didn't show. Getting here had been pretty easy, though she had lucked out when she avoided the mass sleep spell that that been cast across the airport to keep the people from interfering, she thanked her mother for teaching her how to avoid something like that when she was younger. Once in the airport she had made her way from building to building until she spotted the fight starting up and she had barely avoided being blasted by one of that evil guy's magical blasts, the large hole in the wall to her left was all the sign she needed to stay out of the way.  
  
For the last few minutes she had been studying the girl's costumes and some of the items she had seen them use with her equipment, it was almost like she was on assignment looking for one strange item or another for her boss. The blonde had a tiara that turned into that magically powered disk, she had nearly cut the guy's head off with it when one of the others had him distracted. The Blue haired one had what looked like a little calculator of some kind, Nodoka wasn't sure what it was, but was pretty sure that it was a lot more than that. Especially with all that time the girl had spent tapping at it during the fight as she tried to get everyone to work as a team to defeat the evil guy, that one would take her a little while to figure out. The one in the red skirt didn't seen to have any kind of magical device, but seemed to tap into the element of fire for her magic. That one would be easy enough to defend against in a fight if she had the right books back at the house.  
  
The one wearing the red leather seemed to have access to even more power than the others, she had increased speed, strength, and stamina well beyond the others. She also seemed to have access to a powerful magical attack that she had avoided using until the very end there, preferring to use her hands and feet instead. The girl also seemed to be the leader since the other girls were doing what she told them to during the fight, Nodoka wondered if she should let the girls know that she had seen the fight for several seconds, before shaking her head. No, she decided, she would look into this a little more before doing anything else. She was bound to run into these girls again now that she was back in Japan, turning she walked away from the scene jotting some notes down in a little hand held pad she carried with her at all times. She was going to have to look into contacting that red head when it came time to talk to them  
  
**********  
  
"So what do we do now?" Starfire asked.  
  
"We might as well head on home, there isn't anything else we can do here and I think the Police will wake up pretty soon." Mercury said.  
  
"Lets head out and leave her here." Mars said and pointed at Sailor Moon as she had been cradled Tuxedo Mask's head in her lap and sniffled.  
  
"You be quiet Mars!" Moon snapped and glared at the dark haired girl.  
  
"To bad Mask ran away from you, isn't it?" Mars shot back.  
  
"B-B-B-B-B-But..." Moon stuttered, then her eyes grew big and misted up.   
  
"Oh great, now you did it." Starfire muttered.  
  
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" Moon started crying, tears spraying out of her eyes.  
  
Mars rolled her eyes and started to inch away from the girl.  
  
"Well lets get out of here." Starfire said and bent down to pick up Moon as they all moved to leave the Airport. They were soon jumping from the tarmac to the roof of a building and moving out into the city at close to seventy miles per hour.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma was not in a good mood as she stepped out of the shower, she kept going over that fight in her mind, seeing every mistake and screw up they had made during the battle. Jedite had nearly taken them down, all because they couldn't work together like they should. Luna had been telling her that she had to take command of the Sailor Scouts now that she was considered the princess. Ranma didn't agree in the least, if she had a chance she would be leaving this group to do what they wanted as soon as she could, but that was impossible, she had given her word and that was something she wouldn't break. With a sigh Ranma once again remembered that promise she had made to help the Scouts with this battle, she wished she had never made it in the first place.   
  
Grabbing a towel she proceeded to dry off and put on the short robe Rei had given her earlier. She was to tired to even put her hair up in it's normal pig tail so she left it down and walked out to the living room where the rest of the girls were sitting around the table talking about the fight. Ranma still didn't feel like she was a part of this group, the other three girls all got along decently, but Ranma just had problems relaxing in their presence. She just didn't feel like one of them no matter how much she tried or they told her so. The cats were sitting on the table as the girls discussed the fight, they turned to look as Ranma came in.  
  
"Hi Ranma." They all said.  
  
"Hey, so what are you talking about? We all need to get a bit of sleep."  
  
"Jedite of course." Rei snapped.  
  
"Ah." Ranma said as she sat down.  
  
"What did you think of our fight Ranma?" Luna asked.  
  
"Personally? I thought we could have done a lot better than that."  
  
"What?!" Rei yelled. "How dare you say that, we kicked his ass all over the place and saved the city!"  
  
"Yeah right, we spent most of the battle running for our lives as those planes chased us around. Then we got lucky when I finally figured out how to fire off my own lame magical blast and even that wasn't enough to take him down. He was able to put up that shield against all of us until the end there when we finally managed to get our act together enough to work as a team for a couple of minutes." Ranma snapped back.   
  
"You're the one that wanted to take Jedite on alone Ranma." Luna said.  
  
Ranma glared at the cat.  
  
"What?!" Rei yelled. Ami and Usagi just kept quiet and watched as their friend yelled at Ranma for all she was worth.  
  
"You girls have power, but you have no skills to back it up. You run around in a circle firing off blasts of energy and hope to get the monster before it gets you. Jedite nearly had us because he developed a plan of attack and stuck with it, because of that he nearly killed all of us."  
  
"How dare you say that!!" Rei yelled and stood up.  
  
Ranma raised an eye brow. "I've been able to hold my own against Jedite in the past because I followed defined attack plans that he didn't know how to defend against, I made a mistake with this fight when I thought I could do it again. He was ready for me and had taken the time to boost his power enough to catch me off guard, those planes were a great distraction and if they had worked..."  
  
"But we won Ranma." Usagi said quietly.  
  
"Yes we did, when we started working together as a team, me and mask distracted him, Rei planted that ward on his back to freeze him in place while you led that plane right over him. None of us could have done that on our own, but the fact that we acted like such idiots for most of the fight is what gets on my nerves."  
  
"Ranma, you had no idea what you were going to find when you go there. No one knew what Jedite was planning but him and there was no way you could have devised a plan for that." Ito said as she flicked her tail.  
  
Ranma shook her head. "We knew where the fight was going to happen and didn't take the time to scout out the area ahead of time, or to even sit down and plan out any kind strategy. Ito, how are we suppose defend this planet from evils like this if we don't have the proper training to take on something like this?"  
  
"We all did a good job Ranma, we won, Jedite is gone and we can breath a little easier now." Usagi said.  
  
"Sure we won, but I wonder if we could have gone about this in a different way. Everything we did in this fight went against my martial arts training, I'm glad we won, but what about when the next bad guy shows up?" Ranma snapped as she stood up and walked out of the shrine, jumped to a nearby fence, on to a roof, and vanished from sight before the others could comment.  
  
Usagi frowned and turned to look at Luna and Ito. "What did she mean?"  
  
Luna sighed. "Usagi, Ranma is our princess, but she does so very reluctantly and we did kind of force her into the role. She's been trying to lessen the danger for us by taking on a more responsible role as well."  
  
"So what Luna, Ranma is a part of the team now. We may not get along with her very much, but she can be to damned hard core at times." Snapped Rei.  
  
"You girls don't understand Ranma like I do. Ranma is a fighter Rei, she has been training since she could walk, this fight was a major one and she had to go against her principles to let you others to even come along. It took a lot to make her changer her mind." Ito said.  
  
"What?!" Rei snarled.  
  
"Rei, calm down and let me finish!" Ito snapped. "Ranma didn't want to endanger any of you, none of you know how to fight hand to hand like she does..."  
  
"We are reincarnated soldiers from the Silver Millennium Ito, we know how to do this stuff!"   
  
"No you don't Rei, you have access to your magic abilities, but that is it. Everything else you do is purely on instinct, the way you move, the way you react, and even the way you fight is done purely on instinct." Ito said, then she asked all of them. "When have any of you actually trained?"  
  
"We train two or three times a week!" Rei screamed.  
  
"Doing what? Accessing your power? Ranma wakes up in the morning and practices, she spends all day doing little things to practice as well, running on fences, over the roof tops, tossing pencils around like throwing spikes, and two or three hours a night practicing her special abilities. Then she does it again the next day, Rei you've complained about Ranma's habits from time to time since she showed up and in that whole time her schedule hasn't changed a bit. She trains and trains and trains and never stops for a break or a day off, it's in her blood."  
  
"Everybody, lets finish talking about this later, we all need a little sleep and arguing won't fix things." Usagi suggested and headed off for home. They could talk about this tomorrow and have the time to get over their anger.  
  
"Alright, but we have to decide what to do about this. We are team, if Ranma is our leader she needs to lead us, not coddle us like babies." Rei growled.  
  
Luna nodded as she jumped to Usagi's shoulder and looked at all of them. "We can meet here tomorrow to discuss this some more."  
  
**********  
  
"Nephlite!" Queen Beryl screamed.  
  
In a flash of dark light a tall man appears before Queen Beryl's throne and bowed. Like Jedite he was wearing a gray uniform with black edging, he was over six foot tall, had long brown hair, and an evil glint to his eye. "My Queen, you called?"  
  
"Nephlite, I am assigning you with Jedite's task. What is your plan for stealing energy from the humans?" asks Beryl.   
  
Nephlite grins and looks up into the darkness that is the room's ceiling. "All the human's lives are controlled by the stars, their goals, their thoughts, their actions, all of it is controlled and shaped by the heavens. Every one of them follows the path they were set upon at birth and follow it until the end of their lives, at one time during the course of their lives they will reach a peak of skill and energy that rivals everything before that! I will track these people down and gather every bit of that energy for our cause. We can't fail!"   
  
Suddenly there is a high pitched laugh echoing through out the chamber and a swirling vortex of flower petals appears above and behind Nephlite, he turns to glare at the blond haired being hovering behind him, he appears to be relaxing in an invisible chair and smirking at his enemy. "Nephlite, you really think that will work?"   
  
"Can it Zoicite!"   
  
"But you sound so perky and confident of your goals Nephlite...almost like Jedite! Do you plant to follow in his foot steps perhaps? I know, you want to end up 'canned' just like hew was don't you?" Zoicite laughs and vanishes as quickly as he appeared.   
  
Nephlite growls, Zoicite had been dogging his steps for centuries now trying to goad him into attacking him and he was extremely tired of it. He would have to take steps to make sure the asshole left him alone to do his job, but it would take time because the fruit had some high powered protections to back him up when the going got tough. Turning back to Queen Beryl, he ignores the amused look on her face as he struggles for control. "By your leave, your Majesty?"  
  
"You may leave Nephlite, but do not make the same mistakes that Jedite did or I will kill you before you've even realized you've failed."   
  
"Yes my Queen."  
  
**********  
  
At one in the morning the best place in all Tokyo to go for a little privacy, for those that had the ability to reach it, was the very top of Tokyo Tower. The thing had stood in the same spot for over thirty years and was one of the highest free standing metal structures in the world, rivaling even the Eiffel Tower. It was used for many things, TV broadcasting, radio, and tourism. Getting to the top at this time at night was nearly impossible, but the thing was lit up enough that Ranma had no problems finding enough places to jump to using Ki charged jumps to reach the very top in a matter of minutes instead of using the stairs that were guarded by a few security guards.  
  
There were lights running along all the metal beams and cross structures from its base clear to the top, giving it a white and yellow look to it that many of the residents of Tokyo liked to look at during the night. To Ranma it was good cover and allowed her to blend in a bit as she moved up the side, she stayed in costume for the climb and eventually landed near the top on one of the support braces near the antenna. She was still angry at herself and the Scouts for provoking her like that and had to resist the urge to pound the whole thing into tiny bits of metal, but even her increased strength wouldn't be enough to pull that off. There were things she had to think about, those girls she fought with were at times way to immature for her to understand. She was older than them by over two years even if she had been held back a bit because her old man hadn't sent her to school enough. There wasn't a sound to be heard, but Ranma knew someone was standing behind her and watching silently.  
  
"Why?" She snapped without looking back.  
  
"Because you are the princess and it's your job to prepare them Ranma, they can't learn on their own, you have to train them, to help them understand."  
  
Ranma turned and looked behind her to see the Scout that had done this to her, the green haired chick, Sailor Pluto. "You..."  
  
"Ranma, if you ever want to even have a chance to be yourself again you need to weather these difficult times and move beyond them. Eventually you will have the power to fix all of your problems, it will just take time and patients."  
  
"Those girls are too young to be doing this kind of thing Pluto, why did this have to start now? They were nearly killed tonight you know, I didn't like taking them into that kind of danger but everyone insisted."  
  
"You pulled them through it Ranma, just as any leader would have done. As for why they have to start out at such a young age, I had no control over when the Dark Kingdom would appear. When they did the Scouts had to be activated, I would have done so even if they were in grade school."  
  
"What about their safety?! They could die Pluto!"  
  
"If not them, then who would you suggest Ranma? They are the only thing that stands between these monsters and the rest of the world Ranma."  
  
"Then you should have prepared them!!" Ranma snarled. "I'm prepared, I've been through hell and back for my abilities. How can you expect them to just go out and be able to fight these things when they have no training at all?!"  
  
Pluto controlled her temper, but nearly snapped her Key Staff in half as she did so. "Ranma, those girls are reincarnated souls, I had no control over who they became in this life. All I knew was when they would appear, the cats were supposed to have the ability to track them down and activate them completely, but during the years they were in those stupid stasis tubes their memory was affected. It took Luna months to find Usagi and even then the girl isn't exactly the ideal Sailor Scout, but she's trying her best and doing a good job despite her failures."  
  
"I have to get them ready Pluto and I don't have the time to do it, the next threat is already on the horizon and there is no way those girls can fight it as they are now."  
  
"Then train them to fight properly Ranma, just do your best, it's all you can do, things will work out in the end." Pluto said and vanished back into the Time Stream before Ranma could say anymore.  
  
"Bah!" Ranma snorted and turned to look out across the city one more time, there was something out there that she would have to fight and giving in to those cats wishes was not the answer to these problems. Deep down it felt wrong to follow Luna and Ito's advice blindly, she trusted them, but they didn't know everything and that would cause problems in the end. They wanted total obedience, if she was like those other girls she would have probably gone along with it, but after ten years of hell she had learned a few things that those cats just didn't understand. Something wasn't right about this situation and she had no clue what it was, just a feeling deep in her gut that wouldn't go away. One thing she did know was that they hadn't killed Jedite, no matter what Rei wanted to believe, his body hadn't been there when the fog vanished, but the girls had still called it a win. He wasn't dead and that meant that there was a chance that he would turn up some time in the future to attack them again. There had to be some way to prevent that, but everything was so screwed up right now that thing just looked bleak.   
  
How were they going to get out of this mess? Ranma had a feeling that she was going to be spending quite a bit of time training the others to protect themselves, but how was she supposed to speed up ten years of training into a few short months? There was no way she could do it, Rei might give her a chance to train her, but the girl didn't like her very much and that would cause problems in the end. Ami would go along with it so long as it was a logical solution to a problem, then there was Usagi and her infamous lazy/klutz streak. The girl had all the worst symptoms of a growth spurt, increased hunger, the inability to wake up even after twelve hours of sleep, and pure laziness. Ranma had never had the opportunity to act that way when she went through some of those a few years ago, the old man would never have allowed her to forgo training just because she had been a little tired at the time. Being tossed out a three story window while dead asleep taught one to wake up real quick and react even faster or there would be a lot of pain involved. Unfortunately that kind of tactic wouldn't work with Usagi so she would have to come up with something else to get her motivated.   
  
All this thinking wasn't working, she needed someone to talk to for some advice, even the old man had been useful for teaching her when not to do something. Pluto sure as hell hadn't been of much help. She stepped forward and dropped off the edge tower, bouncing from strut to strut to slow he her decent and control the fall with ease. As she fell she continued to think about the problem, there was one thing she could do, but the power drain on her Ki would be enormous and it would take a day or two to recover from it. Ranma shrugged that off, it would be worth it for some good advice from someone that wasn't out to use her as some kind of pawn for their own needs. She touched down and sprang forward using her Sailor Scout enhanced speed to hit speeds that no regular human could ever reach, she vanished in a cloud of dust as she ran.  
  
She hit the park just down the street from the temple and raced into the trees at the back of the park, during her morning runs she had stumbled across this isolated spot near the back wall that would be perfect for using this technique. Coming to a stop she looked around to make sure no one was around, taking the added advantage of using her Ki to scan the area for conceal themselves. Once that was done and she was satisfied that she was alone, she sat down on the ground in a senza position and started to meditate, taking several minutes to go into a deep trance like state. She had only done this on a few occasions and those had been under controlled circumstances, hopefully it would work like she wanted, but the distance was so vast that she had some doubts. Ranma delved deeper and deeper until she felt her aura flare around her in a bright visual display of energy, drawing this in she focused it and sent her mind out in a wave.  
  
'Master Cologne can you hear me?!'  
  
'Cripes child, no need to scream so loud my brain melts!' Cologne snapped back almost instantly.  
  
Ranma nearly fell over, he had never been able to get her to respond so quickly or so clearly. 'Hello Master, its been a while.'  
  
'Indeed it has child, where are you sending from, you've never been this clear. Even when you were sitting right next to me.'  
  
'I'm in Tokyo.'  
  
'...in Tokyo?'  
  
'Yes, I'm surprised I've been able to contact you so quick.'  
  
'Ranma you're screaming at me from half way across the world, every Elder within miles of me can probably hear you.'  
  
'One second, let me focus a bit more...how's that?'  
  
'Much better, now what did you want?'  
  
'I've run into a problem and I don't know how to deal with it, I though you might be able to help me out or offer some advice.'  
  
'What might that be?'  
  
'Well I found out what Jusenkyo did to me for one, it seems it gave the soul of some long dead girl that used to belong to this Magical Kingdom...you know now that I say it, that sounds kinda ridiculous.' Ranma mused to himself as she blushed in embarrassment.  
  
'Magical Kingdom? Do you know what it was called?'  
  
'Um...The Moon Kingdom.'  
  
"Hmm...I haven't heard of it, but name rings a bell, I'll have to ask our historian about it. Maybe she can find something on it, I'm a warrior, not a book worm you know. So what is the problem?'  
  
'Well, there is this series of monsters attacking the city here, me and these other girls have to battle them and the only thing they have to do it with is these magical attacks. They've been doing a tolerable job of holding the attacks off so far, but they were nearly killed tonight and I was helpless to do anything for them.'  
  
'What kind of fighters are they really?'  
  
'The second level students could kick their asses, they are completely dependent on their magic.'  
  
'What about the monsters? Are they magical or simple demons?'  
  
'I'd say mostly magical, they don't act like demons are supposed to and have way to much power at their disposal.'  
  
'Would you like me to send you a squad of Amazons? They should be able to hold them off easily enough.'  
  
'No, but I do need some help dealing with this, I don't know what to do.'  
  
'Ranma you spent ten years with that bastard making all the decisions in your life, use this as a good example to get to know yourself a bit better. You don't make a decision unless you completely understand the situation, tell me were you leading this team of girls into combat?'  
  
'Yes, they think I'm some kind of long lost princess for that magical kingdom, ain't that a hoot?'   
  
Cologne barked a laugh over their mental conversation. 'Indeed, it is funny. Tell you what, my grand daughter and a friend have been tracking your father in Nerima lately, look them up and see if they can give you a hand.'  
  
'Alright, I've got to head over there and take care of a problem anyway.'  
  
'Well I've got to go Ranma, you may be able to shout at me from half way across the world, but I can't keep it up for long.'  
  
'Sorry, I'll try to be more careful next time.'  
  
'Bah, more careful.' Cologne muttered and cut the link.  
  
Ranma opened her eyes and stretched a little and thought about what Cologne had said, she hadn't really been that much help, but two things had become clear. Shampoo was floating around Nerima somewhere with a friend, she wondered what would come of that if they ever caught up with her old man. The second was that her Ki reserves were growing in size, a mental conversation like that should have drained her just a few months before, but now she was only mildly tired, though she could still sleep for a week easily. Ranma sighed and stood up, she wasn't sure what to do about these girls, but the team needed to be trained or they were going end up being hurt or killed eventually. After that Ranma figured she would be able to leave them without feeling guilty about it, but for now she had a few things to take care of.  
  
She would have to travel to Nerima as well, if she could find Shampoo she could finally get these girls trained properly and wouldn't have to do it alone. Shampoo had been training the younger generation in her village for several years now and knew some of the tricks of the trade, that way Ranma figured she could take care of several things at once. There were several other items to consider as well, like what to do about her old man once they met once more. Ranma understood that there was no way that he would even listen to her, he never had and never would, it was a fact of life she was happy to be away from. Something about the old man had been making her nervous for the last few years, she wasn't sure what it was, but just the way he'd been acting lately was so different than she remembered from early in the trip.  
  
The old man was going to be causing some problems in the near future, the jerk had to be close to finding her by now and going back to Nerima would make that even more likely. That meant she would have to be really careful while traveling in Nerima, luckily the old man was an idiot, it wouldn't' take much to trick him if she stumbled across him. She would be looking for Shampoo and she was tracking the old man, so the chances of them coming across each other was pretty good. Ranma started walking out of the park and headed for the shrine, it was time to make some plans and do a couple of other things as well, then she heard a voice as she was exiting the park and turned to see Ami heading her way. She was walking along looking at her computer.  
  
"Hi Ami."  
  
She looked up as she saw Ranma and put up her computer. "Ranma, are you feeling alright? You were a bit mean to the us earlier..."   
  
"Sorry Ami, but I'm worried about you girls." Ranma muttered and looked away.  
  
"Why? When we are transformed we are a lot faster, stronger, and more powerful than we are in our normal forms." Ami pointed out and Ranma could hear the anger in the girl's voice, a very rare event, but Ami could get mad when the situation demanded it.   
  
"I'm not insulting you or the others Ami, we barely defeated Jedite tonight because he knew more about us than we did about him and that placed in a very dangerous situation. We were at a disadvantage and that places us all in even more danger."  
  
"But we still defeated him Ranma, we did a good job."  
  
"Of course you did, I never said any of you did a bad job or screwed up did I? My complaint is that he came so close to actually killing us when we should have been able to take him down easily. We weren't working as a team and it gave him the advantage."  
  
"Then we'll do better next time Ranma, with every battle we get better and stronger."  
  
Ranma shook her head and looked out over the city, though it was still dark out, it was as clear as day with her strange new ability to see in the dark. "We need to train Ami, how to fight as a team and improve our fighting ability for when we fight alone. All of you have said that there was at least one time or another that you've had to fight a Youma on your own, if you girls will allow me to I'll train everybody to do this and survive."  
  
"I agree that we need the extra training Ranma, but you need to learn to work with us instead of just telling us what to do. You haven't even tried to make friends with any of us yet, you just sit around being depressed and act like you aren't one of us." Ami snapped. "You're wrong about that Ranma, you are a Sailor Scout no matter what you say and you keep trying to turn us away, make us dislike you or even hate you and I don't understand why."  
  
"Ami you don't understand..." Ranma tried, this was getting dangerously close to areas she didn't want to think about.  
  
"No you don't Ranma, you are a better fighter than all of us, but we know next to nothing about you. You won't hang around with us like Usagi and Rei do and you go out of your way to distance yourself from us, this needs to change Ranma."  
  
"Why? If I train all of you to be decent fighters you can be the team you were before I showed up and..."  
  
Ami glared at Ranma and stepped a little closer. "And what Ranma, leave? You don't like to think you need anyone do you? You're wrong, I don't know where you got that idea, but you are wrong, you say we are a team, well you are a part of it as well and if you don't work with us then how can we learn to work together?"  
  
"Once I'm done training all of you, I won't be needed anymore.."  
  
"No, even if you leave you will always be a Scout Ranma, leaving won't change that, it will only leave a hole in the team that needs to be filled."  
  
"I don't understand this, why do you want me to stay around? Rei had made it pretty clear that I'm not wanted around. Usagi has been ignoring me since I pulled those practical jokes on her and you've barely said two words to me since I joined up. I feel like a useless cog in a machine Ami, I don't belong here, I would think all of you would want to get rid of me."  
  
"You're repeating yourself Ranma, and if you keep it up I'm going to slap you. Right now Rei wants to beat you up and Usagi is just confused, please think about what you are doing and come to your senses." Ami snapped and walked off before Ranma could say anything, then she stopped and turned back for a second and frowned. "I consider you a friend and I don't want you to leave and if you took a bit of time to talk to us we would talk to you."  
  
Ranma sighed as Ami left and started walking again, she wasn't sure who to be mad at, both Pluto and Ami had taken the time to yell at her. She knew they were right, but apart of her didn't want to have anything to do with this, her hand was being forced and that pissed her off, she didn't like to be forced to do anything. If this step had been her choice she might have thrown herself into it willingly, but a part of her resented Pluto for her actions that first day. She didn't want to spend the next few years fighting these monsters, didn't want to be a magical girl at all, but she was and Jusenkyo had turned her into one. That was another reason to turn her back on them all, but she had given her word and that was something she could not break, ever. Even worse was the fact that her magical power seemed to be growing in power since she could now see in the dark so easily, it didn't matter if she was transformed or not, the magic was always there and ready for use.  
  
Ranma walked around for the next few hours before heading back to the Shrine, she was surprised to see Grandpa Hino waiting up for her, he was sitting on the top step of the stairs as she approached from below. He had a determined look on his face and his eyes hid something as they looked at each other for a few seconds. Ranma didn't like to admit it, but this old guy had a back bone of steel and it affected everyone around him. Ever since she had met the guy she had been slightly intimidated by the aura of peace he was constantly putting out to sooth those around him. That aura wasn't there as he sat on that step, Ranma could feel his anger as he tried to suppress it and control it.  
  
"I followed you and the girls tonight Ranma, you would never believe what I saw at the airport."  
  
"Um..." Ranma started, this wasn't good.  
  
"You and my grand daughters friends all used these small sticks to turn into the Sailor Scouts and went off to battle this guy with even more magic, he was trying to kill all of you like it was a game and everybody was playing along. Isn't that just a hoot? What I don't understand is why this kind of thing was kept from me, would you know anything about it, Rei refused to talk, so I'm forced to come to you for information? You are the leader after all, why were those little girls placed in that kind of danger? Hmm...?"  
  
Ranma gulped and could have sworn that they old guy's eyes turned a deep red as they stared daggers into her brain.  
  
"Well...I can't say Grandpa Hino, the girls asked me to keep things as secret as possible and won't break that promise."  
  
"YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN!!" Grandpa Hino screamed out what few people knew about, she had told him after all.  
  
"No, I won't, I made a promise to them and I won't break it. Not for you and not for anyone else." Ranma said and glared right back.  
  
"Don't force me to do something I don't want to do Ranma, you won't like it." Hino said with a growl of anger as he slowly stood up.  
  
"Forget it."  
  
All was quiet for a few seconds, then with a ragged breath grandpa Hino sighed and nodded. "Get out of the shrine, you are no longer welcome here Saotome." Then he turned and walked over into the bushes, picked up Ranma's pack and tossed it at her. "Leave now and don't darken my shrine again you've brought enough darkness into my home."  
  
She couldn't say much of anything as lightning flashed in the sky and thunder rumbled over the city. Looking up into the sky it started to rain on her as she shrugged on her pack and descended the steps that led up to the Shrine and looked back one last time before turning her back on it and heading back for the park to set up her tent. She had lived out on the road all her life, this would be no different and it would allow her the freedom she needed to get things done. The only thing holding her here was that promise and she would stick to it until she finished what she needed to, then she could finally move on.  
  
**********  
  
There were times when life really sucked, Ranma knew this almost intimately because of the number of times her life had been ruined in one form or another. Getting kicked out of the Shrine had been really unexpected, she had been living there for several months now and it had almost become her new home. There was a part of her that wasn't all that surprised though, she had been run out of more dojos and temporary homes in her life than she could count, though this was the first one that it was her fault instead of the old man and his thieving ways. He normally stole money and scrolls if he had the opportunity, Ranma knew she had gotten very tired of running from people that treated her with kindness because they blamed her for things that her father had done. What a crock of shit, in one night she had managed to ruin everything she had accomplished and now she was homeless again and had nowhere to turn.  
  
The girls were mad at her for yelling at them for being happy that they won that fight with Jedite, kicked out of the shrine and a warm bed just to keep their secrets, and now she was alone again. As she trekked down the street she let the rain drip off her soaked body and thought dark thoughts. Ever since she got her curse things had just gone from bad to worse to just plain weird, she had always tried to live and honorable life, but it seemed at times that most everybody else lived by a different set of codes. She felt out of her depth, why was it so wrong to keep secrets if you had promised to do so? The biggest question was what she was going to do now, she had to keep her promise to help the Scouts in this battle, find a cure to this damned curse that was ruining her life (again), and someplace to live.   
  
The last was easy enough to do, there was the park just down the street, where she had talked to Cologne just a few hours before. The rest was walled off and the closest entrance was just down the block and she reached that in just a few minutes. Now all she had to was to find a place to set up her tent and wait for this damned rain to quit while she got a few hours of sleep. That battle had nearly drained her and she had some practice to get to later on this morning, she knew that things would look better later though. She jumped over the closed gate and landed on the other side, looked around with a sigh, and headed up hill and into the woods that made up most of this park.   
  
She had spent enough time here that she could find her way through it without any trouble and there seemed to be enough light illuminating the area that it was easy to see where everything was. A few minutes later she found a secluded spot that over looked the city, the trees were blocking most of the rain so she quickly set up her tent and crawled inside and sat down. Seeing outside was easy, but sitting inside the tent seemed to make everything darker so she reached into her pack turned on a small electric lantern that she had stored away in her pack and dug around her stuff to see if everything was still there. It took her several minutes for her eyes to adjust after nearly being burned out by the bright light, but they eventually adjusted and she remembered that darkness was kind of optional for her now. After several minutes she was sure that it was, even all that information that had been given to her was still in the side pocket. This included the bank account and checkbook that had come with it, she had never had one of these and hadn't really had any reason to use it while staying at the shrine. Now that she was homeless, again, the money in that account would come in handy, it would only last so long though and she would have to get a job of some kind to live on while she was helping out these girls.  
  
"Ranma are you in there?"  
  
The voice caught Ranma by surprise, she hadn't expected to be followed after being kicked out of the shrine. "Ito?"  
  
"Can I come in?"  
  
"Sure, I don't mind."  
  
She watched as the tent flap moved to the side and the red cat, soaked to the bone and looking really peeved, padded into the tent and sat down on the edge of the sleeping bag Ranma had rolled out earlier. She was dripping water all over the place as she glared at her and tried to give her the evil eye and failed completely. "I'm sorry this had to happen, I've never seen Mr. Hino quite that mad in all the time I've known him."  
  
"He didn't give me any time to say anything." Ranma said. "The one answer he wanted I couldn't give and he wouldn't accept anything else."  
  
"I know, I was there when Rei got home and he started yelling at her for going into danger like that. Those two were still yelling at each other when I left a little while ago."  
  
"I hope things work out Ito, this wasn't the way things were supposed to happen and now it could make things even worse."  
  
"I'll stick with you Ranma, I am your adviser after all, where you go I go and I can help you with a few things. I am a magical cat after all, we do have some advantages over you normal humans after all."  
  
Ranma pulled a scroll out of her pack. "So what do you think I should do now?"  
  
"I'm not to sure, there are several options open to you now that the shrine is no longer available." Ito said as she lay down.  
  
"There are?" Ranma asked with some surprise.  
  
"Oh yes, we just need to decided what to do now. The others will have to be told of course, Luna can help us hunt up some place for us to live for a while..."  
  
"I won't freeload off the others Ito, I've had enough of that over the years and won't do it anymore."  
  
"That's fine, there's also school to worry about now that you aren't at the shrine."  
  
"I can skip several months of school if I have to, there are other things to worry about now."  
  
"True, but school is still important, have you made any plans for tomorrow?"  
  
"Naw, I haven't had time to much of anything yet. Though I might look up a friend over in Nerima..."  
  
"What?! That place is the local center of insanity and chaos, what in the world is over there that would make you risk running into your father and that insane family?"  
  
"Shampoo and a friend, they've been tracking my father for some time now to see if he could lead them to me."  
  
"Are they enemies?"  
  
"No, they are my friends and with their help I might be able to help the Scouts better protect themselves."  
  
"How did you meet these two?"  
  
Ranma grinned. "After I was cursed I spent several months roaming around China learning to live with this body, but after a while I started to wonder if I hadn't made a hasty decision about abandoning my father at Jusenkyo."  
  
"I certainly hope you know better by now?" Ito said with a sniff. Ranma just smirked as she reached into her pack and pulled out a small towel and used it to dry off the soaking wet cat. Ito sat there in a huff and didn't complain about the rough treatment, that rain had been pouring down pretty heavily.  
  
"Now I know better, I went back to Jusenkyo and learned from the guide there that he had ended up in this nearby village."  
  
"This is the village where you met Shampoo?"  
  
"Yep, though at the time we were more enemies than anything else. You see I stumbled into the village and found my old man locked in a cage, they were getting ready to kill and eat him for some feast that he had ruined months before. At first they hadn't planned to do more than kick him back out into the wilds because they thought he was a normal panda, but he is an idiot and started trying to talk to them with these signs and made the mistake of pissing off the village elders. They found out about his curse and that he was a man, they don't treat guys very well in that village and only the best were allowed to even train as martial artists. Even then they weren't trained as well as the women since they ruled the village, my curse actually helped me out when I arrived, but not before pops decided to steal some of the their treasures and run with them."  
  
"You're kidding?"  
  
"Nope, the moron didn't get to far with them and his punishment was to be turned into a panda permanently and killed for food. He was a man after all and had committed a crime that was punishable by death, I arrived just before they were going to carry out the sentencing."  
  
"This isn't what you told that Nabiki girl the other day."  
  
"I only gave her an abridged version, she didn't need to know everything about me, we had only just met and didn't see any reason to tell her. I did learn a few things about giving out information to complete strangers while wandering around for all those years."  
  
Ito nods. "So what happened?"  
  
"Well I had by that time picked up a bit of Mandarin and made the mistake of telling one of the guards that the panda was my father in his cursed form. The guard was named Perfume and she didn't even give me a chance to explain anything else and attacked my with this nasty looking sword. After ten years on the road she was barely a threat, but the attack came out of nowhere and she nearly beheaded me and I got angry at her for it and gave her the beating of her life. I used to believe that hitting girls was a bad idea, but there are times when you have to protect yourself no matter who is attacking, boy was this a bad idea, but again I wasn't really thinking things through at the time."  
  
"Bad idea? Sounds to me like you made the right decision, the only other thing you could have done was run away and that isn't in your character."  
  
"Well the Amazons, as the people in the village are called, have these rules that they live by because of the primitive conditions of the area. When an outsider female defeats one of the female Amazon warriors they have two options, killing them or inducting them into the tribe as new blood. Perfume wasn't about to do something like induct me into the tribe and after she had been beaten one of her friends, Shampoo, beaned me across the head with one of her bonbori and distracted me as Perfume gave me the Kiss of Death."  
  
"Bonbori? Kiss of Death?" Ito looked a little pale.  
  
"A bonbori is kind of mace with the club end made out of multiple layers of cloth and filled with sand and tightly bound to a handle, they can weigh anywhere from five pounds to over a hundred by adding weights and changing what they are made out of. Anyway, after knocking me down Perfume told me I had better run so I could live longer than a few minutes, she meant it too, but this was a challenge I wasn't about to just run away like some coward. It goes against everything I've ever been taught, seconds later she attacked me again, it was like the beating I'd given her hadn't even happened and this time using lethal attacks, I got mad."  
  
"Mad?"  
  
Ranma nodded with a grin. "Turns out it was a one of the few good ideas I had during the whole thing, I met her head to head, shattered her swords and beat her up again. Though since I was mad I started breaking bones, both her arms, a leg, and several ribs that put her down several minutes later. We had attacked a crowd by this time and they cheered when Perfume went down and stayed down. One of the elders came forward, examined the girl, and declared me to have proven my right as a woman before the whole tribe and made me an Amazon on the spot to have the courage to stand up to them."  
  
"What kind of silly thinking is that?!" Ito almost yelled.  
  
"It seems the Kiss of Death is just another way to induct girls with the proper attitude into the tribe, it also proves their skill and bravery to all the witnesses. It got the old man a stay of execution while they tried to figure out what to do with him now that he had a tie to the village, old fart never even thanked me for it either. After that one of the Elders, her name was Cologne, said that as a member I could stay in the village and learn their ways or leave and go out into the world as an Honorary Member, I decided to stay for a while and see if I could make a home there."  
  
"Fascinating, what happened to your father, I know he's over in Nerima now."  
  
"I'm not sure how he escaped actually, after I had learned about everything he had done to me over the years I lost all my compassion for him and told them to keep him locked up for as long as they wanted, the only thing I asked was that that he wasn't killed. Cologne agreed and he stayed in the cage the whole time I was there, I tried talking to him several times, but he kept ordering my to do things to get him out and insulting me. After awhile I got tired of it and stopped trying, at the same time Cologne and the other Elders were teaching me their village's style of martial arts and how to perform several different types of Ki attacks. These scrolls are some of the ones I haven't mastered just yet."  
  
"Oh, when will you be heading to Nerima?"  
  
"Probably in the morning, it seems like the best time and there is someone else there that I have to look up."  
  
"Another Amazon?"  
  
"Naw, a Doctor."  
  
"Are you sick?"  
  
"No, but if you recall I noticed the other day that I've been having problems with my emotions lately, highs, lows like tonight, lots of anger and it's been affecting my magic and making them unstable."  
  
"What?! Why didn't you $%&@ing tell me this?! I can help out with that kind of stuff you know!" Ito yelled and popped a paw full of claws as she glared at Ranma, which looked kind of funny since she was still wrapped up in the towel.  
  
"Hey, you cut that out. This is also a Ki problem and there is a Doctor in Nerima that knows a lot about Ki and how it works."  
  
Ito lit up in a red glow that made Ranma back up a little, he could see that that cat was seriously pissed off. "Tell me what has been happening, NOW."  
  
"Okay, okay, no need to get your tail in a kink. Whenever I use my Ki or magic abilities I can feel this wrongness inside of me, like everything is out of balance. It's not enough to affect my fighting, but if it keeps up there is a chance that in the future this might change. I'm hoping the doctor can explain why this happening. The magic is the worst of the two, it surges and is hard to keep control of when I have to use it in a fight."  
  
The cat, still glowing, sighed and nodded. "I'm not sure what the problem is, unless you're leaving something else out..."  
  
"No, it's just a minor irritant right now. I do know that it gets worse when I'm angry, the last time I went to Nerima and got in that fight at the Tendo place I nearly lost control of it and almost killed someone, but I managed to wrest control back before it became a problem."  
  
"Ranma, that was like three days ago."  
  
"It was? Man it feels like it was last month." Ranma said and giggled a little.  
  
"I think I might be able to help you a little though, you need some rest and lately you haven't had much, so go to sleep. I'll wake you up later."  
  
"Give me about four hours, the sun should be up by then and I can start off for Nerima."  
  
"Alright, now get some sleep."  
  
With a shrug Ranma crawled into her sleeping bag, turned off the lantern and got comfortable. "Ito?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Quit glowing or I'm going to toss you outside."  
  
The red glow vanished and Ranma was soon asleep, the cat was still in a bad mood though as it curled up in the corner of the tent and watched Ranma as she slept. She had never seen the girl in this bad of a mood and wondered if there was anything she could do to get her to cheer up. Getting kicked out of the shrine was a pain, but it wasn't like the girl hadn't spent the last ten years on the road under that abusive monster. She would have to find a place to stay now, one of the Scouts would be the logical choice, but with them all mad at Ranma right now she didn't know if that was a good idea or not. Plus Ranma said she didn't want to freeload off them so they might have to find a cheap apartment to live in, they did have a little money to use in an emergency and as a Ranma's adviser she had access to some special resources.  
  
**********  
  
The trip back to Nerima was uneventful, instead of taking a bus Ranma decided that since she was homeless there was no point in being in a hurry so she walked there with Ito riding on top of her back pack. Ranma spent most of that time going over the last few days in her mind and wondering why she had made certain decisions, taken this action instead of that one when she knew the other one worked better. Alienating the Scouts had not been a good idea and she hadn't even really thought about what she was doing, just mouthing off to shield herself from her feelings. That little problem would have to be fixed as soon as possible, but for now it would have to wait.  
  
Getting away from the Scouts was a good idea, she needed a break from all this monster crap and with the main bad guy defeated it would be a few days or so before the next one showed up. At least that was what she figured, either that or it would show up tonight, why give them a break when a quick attack would be useful. From what she had seen of Blondie so far they weren't really into tactics, instead they just over powered their opponents and took what they wanted like a gang of bullies. There wouldn't be any problems and if there were she still had her communicator, though admitting that the sparkly pink thing belonged to her was right up there with accepting the curse. She had quietly turned it off when Ito wasn't watching last night, the girls could do without her for a day or two. There was no way in hell, she had to live with it, but she would never give in to it and planned to fight with ever last breath she had before she gave up her manhood completely.  
  
"Fucking old man and his ideas." She muttered under her breath.  
  
Nerima was the same as she remembered it from her last trip, full of old expensive houses and dojos. She passed by several and considered challenging of them for a free meal, but decided that could wait until later and if it was really needed, it was kind of underhanded and it wasn't as if she didn't have any money now. Of the 50,000 yen she had been given she had only spent about 4,000 of it and most of the wages the Grandpa Hino had been giving her for working at the temple, though there was a little of that left as well and should last her a few days yet. She didn't really care about money really, it was there and it got her food, what else was there to say. If she needed more she could always go out an win a few pit fights for the hell of it and they paid off good in certain areas. Easiest way to fund a martial arts trip really, go in, beat up some guy who thought he was hot shit and walk out with 4 or 5 hundred thousand yen, have the old man steal most of it and get blind stinking drunk.   
  
The ole man would die when it was time, she would make sure he never got a chance to use her again. That was one of the other things she had to blame on him, she couldn't think of herself as a guy while in this form and no matter how hard she tried nothing could change that fact. She sighed and decided that a distraction was in order before she became suicidal again, but what could she do? Without breaking stride she was airborne, Ito screamed and dug her claws into the back pack, and they landed on top of the fence. She didn't hesitate as she started to walk along the rickety thing and whistled a tune. With only one visit to Nerima so far she was a little lost, but she didn't mind, all she had to do was find a policeman and ask for directions.   
  
"Ranma if you do that again without warning me I'll claw your foot off, understand me?" Ito hissed in her ear.  
  
Sweatdropping, Ranma nodded nervously and giggled a little.   
  
"Good, now where are we going now?"  
  
"Nerima."  
  
"We are in Nerima, where are we going now that we are here?"  
  
"I need to talk to that doctor and to find him I need to find Nabiki, she should be in school right now and she showed it to me when were here last time."  
  
"Alright, what's it called?"  
  
"Furinkan High School, it shouldn't be to hard to find with a name like that."  
  
"That one is a little odd, but you do have one other little problem to deal with." Ito said mildly.  
  
"What would that be?" Ranma muttered as she walked along the fence, over the canal, and down an alley.  
  
"It's a school day."  
  
"Yeah, so what?"  
  
"You aren't in school..." Ito said and left it hanging.  
  
"Of course I'm not in school, I...oh crap." Ranma muttered as a man dressed in a blue uniform and an authoritative looking hat stood on the ground beside her and glared. "Truancy Officer?"  
  
He narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Come along. Now."  
  
"I'm on my way to Furinkan High School."  
  
"Is that where you go usually?" He asked.  
  
"No, but I'm going to check it out while I'm here meeting a friend of mine." Ranma said nervously and played with her pig tail.  
  
"Do you have a permission slip from your old school?"  
  
"Um...no?"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Um...it took longer to get here that I thought it would?"  
  
"Really?" He asked in a disbelieving drawl.  
  
Ranma nodded helpfully and grinned.  
  
"What is your name?"  
  
"Ranma."  
  
"Family name?"   
  
"...Masaki." Ranma growled out, remembering at the last second to use the name she had given herself at Jubaan High.  
  
"Miss. Masaki, I believe I will escort you to Furinkan to confirm this story." He said with an evil 'I don't believe you' grin.  
  
"You don't have to do that, I can make it on my own, I'm not that far away."  
  
"You're absolutely right about that, you're only a few blocks away from Furinkan. Now come along, it should only take a few minutes to get there."  
  
"Just point me in the right direction and I can go on my own." Ranma growled, this guy was starting to get on her nerves.  
  
"No, now come along." He said and motioned for her to get down off the fence and follow him.  
  
"...grumblecursesnarlgrumblesnarlcurse..." Ranma muttered some unpleasant things under her breath.  
  
"What was that?"   
  
"Nothing!" Ranma said sweetly.  
  
"Uh huh, no tricks or I'll send a slip to your current school and have you in detention for the rest of the year."  
  
"Yeah, yeah."  
  
They walked along for about ten minutes before Ranma recognized where she was and saw the school in the distance. The gates were closed, but those kinds of things had never stopped her before, one simple jump and they were breached easily enough. That plan was foiled when the guy grabbed her elbow and dragged her over to a small security phone beside the gate and called someone inside the school. Ranma saw a shadow appear at one of the windows on the first floor and the gate opened to admit them. Students started to appear at the windows to watch, the main gate was never opened until the end of the school day. She had to grin though, every time she visited a new school she made a big entrance and was the talk of the school for a day.  
  
"The Assistant principle would like to see you." The guy dragging her said with an implied threat.  
  
'Some people take their jobs way to seriously.' Ranma thought to herself as they entered the main building.  
  
There was an old man with little in the way of hair waiting for them as they entered the main office. The officer pushed her towards a nearby chair, designed to be very uncomfortable, and told her to sit while this problem was dealt with. Now that she was free, she considered running, it wasn't like she wanted to go to transfer to this school, she just wanted to talk to one of the students. She decided to play along for now, but the instant they tried to do something strange they were going to be less one person. There were skills that she had that could get her out of a locked jail cell, breaking out of school was child's play. She grinned evily up that to guys discussing her life while she was sitting in the say room, it reminded her of other events in her life that the old man had pulled off.  
  
After about ten minutes the officer left and glared at her when he walked out and went back out into the streets to find more kids to harass. The old man came out of his office and looked her over. "Miss. Masaki?"  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"Records show that you have been attending Jubaan High and didn't show up this morning. They have been informed that you are here, do you understand?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Now what was so important that skipping school was needed to come here?"  
  
"...I came to talk to a friend about something that happened last night."  
  
"And what was that?"  
  
"It's none of your business, that's what."  
  
"Don't be uncooperative, this school is used to dealing with a rougher type of student and you have no idea how tired it get when I have to deal with and attitude."  
  
"What happened to me is none of your concern, all you need to know is that it has affected whether or not I will be returning to Jubaan High."  
  
"What is your father's name?"  
  
"He left me for dead while we were in China and I would rather die than be put back in his care." Ranma growled and let some of her true anger show in her eyes. The Vice Principle stepped back in shock and nodded.  
  
"We've had cases like this before, then what is your mother's name?"  
  
"I don't know." Ranma mumbled. It was a little lie, but something that she didn't want to get into at the moment.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"You heard me." Ranma muttered.  
  
"How can you not know your mother's name?"  
  
"My old man, the one that abandoned me, took me from my mother for a training trip ten years ago. I was only five at the time, I don't remember her name alright?"  
  
"Then well have to call child protective services to find her for you or place you with some foster parents."  
  
"I have been on my own for over a year I can take care of myself and I have plenty of money so making ends meet is no problem. You know I'm old enough to be on my own." Ranma growled and stood up.  
  
"You've been living on your own for over a year?" He asked in surprise.  
  
"Yes."   
  
"What kind of job do you have?"  
  
"Until last night I was working at a shrine for room, board, and a small salary." Ranma growled and cursed herself for saying that.  
  
"You were kicked out of the shrine?"  
  
Ranma growled again and nodded.  
  
"So you came here to talk to one of your friends about a place to stay?"  
  
"Yeah." Ranma lied, but figured it might get this guy off her back.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Nabiki Tendo."  
  
Ranma was a bit surprised when the guy nodded as if he had expected that answer and motioned for her to sit down again. Something about his attitude had changed the instant she said Nabiki's name, the guy scared or nervous. What was it about her friend that made a guy like this nervous? It had been in the way his stance shifted, the way his eyes had gotten bigger, the sudden nervous sweat he'd developed. Ranma tried to think back to the day the two days they had spent together a few days before and couldn't think of one thing that would make this guy react like that, she was only a student and he was a teacher. Out of the corner of her eye she even saw that the secretary had gone a bit pale and her eyes were darting around. These adults were scared of Nabiki, what was it about the girl that made them act like this?  
  
"Ito, why are they so scared of Nabiki?" Ranma whispered to the cat still curled up on her pack.  
  
"I don't know Ranma." She whispered. "She seemed like a very pleasant girl when we met her a few days ago."  
  
The Vice Principle came back out of his office and frowned at her. "Miss. Tendo will be here in a few minutes, Miss. Masaki."  
  
"Thank you." Ranma said.  
  
"Complete your business as soon as you can. Normally I would make you spend a day on one of the classes for ditching school, but if you've really come to see Miss. Tendo about something you are in more trouble than I thought. Wait out in the hall please." With that he waved her out of the office and went back to his own to slam his door.  
  
"Thanks!" Ranma said sarcastically and moved to the bench outside the office to wait.  
  
About five minutes later Ranma heard some foot steps coming down the hall and turned to see a confused Nabiki heading her way. Standing up and shouldering her pack again and getting another threat from the sleepy cat, Ranma smiled and waved at the girl. "Hi Nabiki."   
  
"Ranma, what in the world are you doing here?"  
  
"Looking for you actually."  
  
"Then why did the office have me called out of class?" She asked with a glare.  
  
"I got caught by the Truancy Officer..." Ranma mumbled as Nabiki blinked and laughed a little.  
  
"I take it you had to talk your way out of being forced to attend classes here for the day?"  
  
"Yep." Ranma nodded and sighed. "It's not even noon yet and already I'm tired."  
  
"You do sound tired. So what did you need to see me for?"  
  
"I got kicked out of the shrine last night..." Ranma started.  
  
"You need a place to stay, but our place out of the question with Genma stinking up the place; right?"  
  
"Um....actually I hadn't thought of that."   
  
"Huh?" Nabiki muttered.  
  
"I wanted to go and visit that Doctor friend of yours, but you never said where he was located."   
  
"You went through all this just for an address?"   
  
"Um...yeah, this is kind of normal for me actually." Ranma muttered and blushed a little.  
  
"Right, you do tend to attract certain kinds of people don't you?"  
  
Ranma sighed and nodded.  
  
"Well I'll point out the way for you, normally I would charge someone for my help, but I owe you a favor and this can go into helping me repay that." Nabiki said as she led them out the front door of the school and pulled out a note book. After scratching out some notes, she gave it to Ranma with a grin. "Here you go, directions to Dr. Tofu's place just down the block."  
  
Resisting this strange urge to hug the girl, Ranma waved as she vaulted the gate and ran off with a wave. "Bye!"  
  
To Nabiki's surprise she found herself waving back and smiling. With a violent shake she put the Ice Queen mask back on and stalked back into the school and told herself that getting involved with that girl was going to cause a lot of problems. Her heart on the other hand told her to shut up, this was the first friend that she gotten past the mask in years and that Ranma would make her happy. She ignored it though and headed back to class to think about how she could use this to her advantage and make a little money. Surprisingly she could only think of one way and the possibility of getting any money out of Genma was impossible, the man was a freeloader and a waste of skin with no money to his name. So she shrugged, felt a little guilty, and headed back to class.  
  
**********  
  
To Ranma's surprise, Dr. Tofu's place was only a couple blocks from the Tendo home and that was about as close as she wanted to get to that place without a reason. Just a few days ago she had been forced to defend herself against almost everybody that lived at that place except for Nabiki and that other girl that had the peaceful aura. Shrugging a bit of apprehension she crossed the street and entered the main gate to the small clinic. The sign outside said that he specialized in Acupressure, Acupuncture, and Moxibustion healing, this came as a bit of a surprise since Nabiki had said that he might be able to help her with her magic control problem. Shrugging as she entered the office she saw that it was a pretty typical doctors office, there was a main waiting room, and admissions desk with and old woman handling some paper work. They had just opened so there weren't any patients waiting around yet, she looked up as Ranma entered and looked around.  
  
She was a bit surprised at the large back pack and the red cat eyeing her from around Ranma's head. "My I help you, dear?" She kindly asked.  
  
"I need to see a Dr. Tofu about something."  
  
"Of course, just sign in here and I'll let him know you are waiting to see him. We just opened."  
  
"Sure."  
  
Ranma looked around the front room and saw that there was a bench running along the wall and several loose chairs for people to use while they waited. There were several plants spaced around the room and hard wood floors that looked like they saw a lot of use. For the most part the place looked pretty professional and well kept, but she was beginning to wonder how a guy like this could help her out with a magic problem. She looked up as the old woman came back into the room and handed her a small clip board. Ranma took it and looked the thing over.  
  
"Since you are a new patient we need you to fill that out for us to set up a file on you and treat you right."  
  
"Gotta pen?"  
  
It didn't take her to long to fill out the paperwork, pretty normal stuff really considering she couldn't remember half the injuries she had taken over the years. She finished it about ten minutes later and handed it back to the old woman, who took it and started entering all the info into a computer of all things. "Thank you."  
  
"Sure."  
  
Something touched her shoulder, she turned to see what it was and saw a skull looking back at her with it's hand on her shoulder. There were a couple of cracks along an eye ridge.  
  
"GYAAAAAA!!" She yelled and attached herself to the ceiling before she looked down.  
  
"Hi!" Said a man in his early thirties, he was wearing a blue doctors smock, a pair of glasses, and holding a human skeleton in his hands as he laughed.  
  
"Um..." Ranma said with a sweat drop and moved a few feet away while still clinging to the ceiling.  
  
He held up the skeleton with a grin. "Don't mind Betty, she just wanted to say hello to the new patient."  
  
The old woman cackled from the other side of the room.  
  
"What the hell did you do that for?!" Ranma yelled and dropped to the floor and glared at the guy.  
  
"Just a little joke. Hi, I'm Dr. Tofu, what can I do for you?"  
  
Ranma huffed and relaxed a little, the guy had snuck up on her without her even noticing and that was very hard to do. She could tell from the way he was standing that he was a master level martial artist, though he tried to hide it. "Nabiki said you might be able to help me with a little problem, but I'm not sure if you can."  
  
"Oh? What kind of problem?"  
  
"Controlling the energy in my body while I'm fighting, it surges quite a bit whenever I have to use certain abilities."  
  
Tofu leaned forward and Ranma could see his aura flare a tiny bit. "Your aura is a bit unusual, are you having problems controlling your Ki? That just takes time and practice to master normally, I don't see anything wrong with it."  
  
"I'm fine with Ki, I've been having a bit of trouble with my magic and that's what I'm having problems with."  
  
"Magic? Well I might, but it's not my specialty I might have to let you talk to one of my old teachers. They have more experience with magic than I do. Well, come on back, I'll examine you in a bit more detail and see if there might be anything else that might be causing the problem. Have you ever had a full physical?"  
  
Ranma nodded absently, she had expected to spend the next several days here in Nerima so this didn't bother her that much. They headed to a room in the back of the small clinic, it held three small areas sectioned off into bed spaces for incoming patients. Dr. Tofu led her over to the first bed and told her to sit down while he ran her through a quick physical. Half an hour late she was dressing, cursing the doctor under her breath, and glaring at him as he wrote something down on his clip board. "You didn't have to do that you know."  
  
"You're a first time patient, I have to know what kind of shape you're in and if you have any medical conditions I have to cure before we can determine what is causing you to have problems."  
  
"Not to worry, you won't have to do that again any time soon. All girls have to go through it eventually, you're not the first and won't be the last."  
  
"Yeah, yeah." Ranma muttered and tried to ignore Ito as she hid inside the backpack and giggled herself silly. "Have you been able to figure out why I'm having my little problem?"  
  
"Not yet, but this is just the first exam, there may be more we have to do before I can figure it out."  
  
"I thought so, how long do you think?" Ranma asked as she buttoned up her shirt and adjusted the long sleeves.  
  
"A day or two, will you be in town for very long?"   
  
"About a week or two, it depends on what happens, but after that I have to head back to Jubaan."  
  
"Alright, I should have something for you by then. Stop by when you can, oh, where are you staying until then?"  
  
"At the park or a local empty lot, wherever I can set up my tent and camp out."  
  
"No friends or family to stay with?"  
  
"My friends are in Jubaan and my family...doesn't exist anymore so I'm on my own at the moment."  
  
"Well if you need a place to stay there is the Tendo Dojo a few blocks...is something wrong?"  
  
"I won't stay at the Tendo place, we've had problems in the past and I don't need to make them worse." Ranma said flatly.  
  
"I see, well then good luck to you Ranma I hope you find a good place to stay while you're here. I don't think this problem is anything to worry about yet, but you still need to be careful."  
  
**********  
  
As the door to the clinic shut behind her Ranma stopped as a strange feeling made the back of her head tingle, there was something out there watching her, she could feel it. Ito had stayed in the pack to keep her from being pummeled by Ranma for laughing at her, but she could tell that Ranma had other things on her mind right now. Sending her senses out to scan the area, Ranma was surprised to find that there were four sets of eyes watching her, one from the roof of the clinic, one from down the street, one from the roof down the street, and someone to far away to pinpoint. She took her pack off and sat it to the side and pretended to stretch. "Ito, stay here and guard the pack, I'll be back in a few minutes."  
  
"Sure..." Ito whispered, but Ranma had already jumped into the air and launched herself for the roof of the clinic with a yell.  
  
The instant she landed, Ranma spotted a girl moving across the roof, she was wearing a lot of concealing clothing, baggy pants, a large shirt, and a wrap around cloak that hid everything else except the small pack the girl had slung over one shoulder. She stopped and took a fighting position as a couple of small balls in her hand, they were half black and half white. Ranma figured they might be smoke bombs of some kind and prepared to stop her if he had to, these things were tricky and hard to defend against with an opponent you didn't know. They started to circle each other slowly and Ranma could tell that the girl was a somewhat skilled fighter, but didn't spend enough time on her forms to be an expert at hand to hand. The little balls in her hands were being held carefully, as if ready to use at a moments notice so they probably weren't smoke bombs like she had thought and had to be some kind of weapon then, something to be wary of until she knew what they were.  
  
"Why are you watching me like as spy?" Ranma asked.  
  
"I thought you might be someone I know, but I was mistaken and was moving to leave when you jumped up here. Over."  
  
"Who did you think I was?"  
  
"That is none of your concern, just leave now and you no get hurt. Over."  
  
"Well I certainly don't want to fight you..." Ranma started, but she was interrupted by a purple blur that crashed into her from the side before she could react to it.  
  
Glomp!  
  
"RANMA!!" It yelled as they crashed to the ground.  
  
"SHAMPOO!!" Ranma gasped out, recognizing the voice almost immediately.  
  
"You know Shampoo?! Over." The girl in the cloak screamed and popped several more balls out of her sleeves and threw them all at once. Ranma tried to get out of the way, but Shampoo wasn't paying attention and the little black and white balls rained down on them before they could do anything.  
  
"Shampoo so happy to see friend Ranma again!" Shampoo squealed happily.  
  
BOOSH!!  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! Now you will pay for your crimes Shampoo! Over." The crazy girl cackled as she stalked forward to find Ranma and Shampoo struggling to get up. She pulled out a watering can and covered them with a layer of water. "This was to to easy plan. Over."  
  
Shampoo growled as she tried to move, but the poison was already taking effect and she could already feel her strength leaving her body.  
  
"Now listen up, this is Mandragora Root, is deadly poison. Over." The girl said as she sprinkled water over them.  
  
Ranma struggled against the poison as the plant seemed to grow over them instantly, forming into some kind of crude human shape that clung to their clothing and started to emit the some kind of pollen. She could feel the poison taking affect already, draining her of strength. "I'll..."  
  
"Now listen real good, you die in ten minutes or when root is taken off and it screams,   
then you die instantly. Revenge! Over."  
  
"No I won't let you..." Ranma said as she struggled to her feet and the girl looked at her in amazement, she had never seen anyone get up after being poisoned with Mandragora root.  
  
"Impossible..." She muttered, produced another ball and flicked it Ranma.  
  
She was blacking out even as the ball hit her in the chest and exploded in a large puff of smoke, with a gasp everything went dark and she fell down just as a forth person joined them on the roof, grabbed the cloak's hood and threw the girl off the roof before she could do anything. Twin screams of shock echoed over the building just as Dr. Tofu ran out on the roof and saw what was happening. The new girl nodded at him and handed him some ear plugs to put in Ranma's ears as she did the same with Shampoo. They didn't have any of the poison in their system so the screams didn't affect them as the oddly shaped roots were yanked off and thrown away, still screaming. After that Ranma and Shampoo were taken into the clinic and an antidote administered as they slept it off.  
  
A little while later, after taking care of some more patients, Dr. Tofu come back into the room to check on the two girls. "Hello again, I never did get a chance ask what your name was."  
  
"Perfume." The girl says as she watches over Shampoo.  
  
"Good afternoon Perfume, there's no need to worry, we got the Mandragora root antidote into to them before it was to late. They should be just fine with a little more rest." Perfume nodded and continued to look worried as Tofu checked the girls over and took their vitals again. "They should be waking up anytime now."  
  
"I know, me and Shampoo didn't expect Pink and Link to show up after all this time, supposedly they had given up trying to kill Shampoo. I wonder what made them change their minds? We had other things we needed to do first, but those two never give up trying to kill Shampoo, at least until last year when they vanished."  
  
"Well you be careful, that girl that attacked you was using some pretty rare poisons. I'm lucky I had the antidote on hand actually." Tofu said with a shrug. He was about to say more, but Shampoo and Ranma started to wake up so he went to make one last check on them.  
  
Ranma groaned as she opened her eyes and looked around to see Dr. Tofu and someone she hadn't seen in a very long time. "Perfume?" She mumbled.  
  
"Hello again Ranma, I apologize for getting you caught up in our mess."  
  
"Eh, it doesn't matter. How's Shampoo?"  
  
"Shampoo head hurt, will break Pink and Link like twig and stomp on them!" Shampoo groaned and snarled, and finally whimpered a little. "After head stop pounding."  
  
"You've survived this attack before Shampoo so I know you can do it again." Perfume said with a smirk. "Ranma, we've been trying to find you for some time now."  
  
"You have?" Ranma asked, her head hurt like there were a dozen Colognes was pounding on it with her staff.  
  
"Followed after you when your father ran off from village, but the one time you show up in Nerima and meet up with your father, we missed you completely."  
  
"How?"   
  
Perfume blushed a little. "We was asleep, you showed up the one day we decided to take a break."  
  
There was a strange catch in Perfume's voice, but Ranma didn't know if she was lying to her or not so she didn't worry about it. "Don't worry about it Perfume."  
  
"Ranma hide from Shampoo." Shampoo accused from the next bed. "I'll hit you with a bonbori if you do it again sister."   
  
"Ah...sure thing Shampoo. So why were you following the old man anyway?"  
  
"We thought he would lead us to you, but he just came here and took a seat at that Tendo place and never moves his lazy butt unless he's going out for a drink with that other male that lives there. Very, very boring to watch." Perfume muttered.  
  
Ranma laughed a little. "That sounds just like pop. Did you know he disowned me?"  
  
"What?!" Tofu yelled from where he was sitting.  
  
The three girls jumped in surprise and glared at him.  
  
"What do you mean he disowned you?!"  
  
"Could you not yell, my head hurts enough as it is Doc." Ranma muttered.  
  
"Sorry, but why would he do that?"  
  
"Pops doesn't like to admit up to his mistakes and tends to make things all my fault even when he was the one on making it."  
  
"So?"  
  
"You wouldn't believe me and I have no way to prove it to you." Ranma muttered.  
  
"Well you tell me anyway, I have to do something about this..."  
  
"You will do nothing Doctor, I have already cut all the ties with my family and changed my name. I am the first of my new family so there is nothing to worry about, I just live on my own and have done so for over a year now."  
  
"How do you make ends meet?"  
  
The horrid headache spiked for a few seconds and Ranma had to rub her forehead. "I was working at a shrine over in Jubaan, but I was kicked out of there last night, but if I really need money I can do some pit fighting. That's how me and pop used to get a quick buck while on the road."  
  
"How did you pay for my bill earlier?" Tofu asked, he seemed to be searching for something.  
  
"I've got a lot in savings, I just used my card to pay it."  
  
"Fine, now about this other thing you can't tell me?"  
  
"I can't prove it, so I'm not going to say anything more on that."  
  
"But..."  
  
"You stop prying." Perfume said and pulled a large scimitar out of thin air with a flick of her wrist.  
  
"If you know what a Jusenkyo Cruse is Doctor I can tell you, but if you don't there isn't a thing I can do to make you understand." Ranma said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.  
  
"Sorry, but I've never heard of it, but I have heard the name Jusenkyo before. I'll have to look it up in my library."  
  
A thought occurred to Ranma and she looked around. "How long was I unconscious?"  
  
"About four hours, why?" Perfume asked.  
  
"Can someone step outside and bring my backpack in here, my cat is inside it and she might be a little hungry by now."  
  
"I remember bag, I'll go get it." Perfume said as she stood up and walked out of the room.  
  
"Well I have a couple of other patients to look in on Ranma, I'll be back in a half hour or so, okay?" Dr. Tofu said as she backed out of the room, he would also be heading up to his library to look that name and see if there was anything there that would make Ranma act like that.  
  
"Sure thing Doc." Ranma said and absently waved goodbye. "So Shampoo, what was the real reason you were trying to track me down?"  
  
"Shampoo no know what you mean." The purple haired girl said, but she wouldn't meet Ranma's eyes.  
  
"Shampoo?"  
  
"Shampoo miss only friend and decided to go after her and become wanderer like sister." Shampoo said.  
  
"A Wanderer? You?" Ranma muttered. "Bwhahahahahaha!!"  
  
"NO LAUGH AT SHAMPOO!!" Shampoo yelled and thumped Ranma over the head with one of her bonbori, then winced as her head started to throb from the noise level and had to lay back down to make it stop. Then she sighed when she noticed that Ranma was out cold again.   
  
Perfume came back into the room struggling to lift Ranma's pack and muttering about how she was a strong Amazon and no stupid heavy pack was going to defeat her. "Grunt! Shampoo...you have...to stop...beating up everyone you...grunt...meet in this city." The pack slammed to the floor beside Ranma's bed with a loud thud, she had to bend down to see if the floor had cracked under all that weight. Luckily it seemed to have survived the heavy object and she breathed a sigh of relief as she stood up, but then that pack started to move on its own and that top flap moved back. A red cat peaked her head out with and irritated look on it's face and looked at Perfume and Shampoo and wiggled her whiskers at them.  
  
They blinked.  
  
"Um...meow?"  
  
"Oh really?" Perfume asked as she bent down to glare at the cat. "Ranma said you might be hungry, are you hungry?"  
  
Ito looked innocent and pretended to be a normal cat, but she had a feeling she had just blown it.  
  
**********  
  
Ring, Ring, Ring..."Hello?"  
  
"Nabiki, that girl you told me to follow got into a fight over at Dr. Tofu's clinic with some other girl on the roof of the clinic that was wearing a lot of clothes."  
  
Pulling out a pad and a pencil Nabiki started to take down notes, she wanted to know what Ranma was going to do now that she was here in Nerima again just a few days after that fight she'd had with her sister and Ryoga. She needed to find out if there was any way to make a profit off of this without alienating her in the process. Friends were a rare commodity that she didn't give up unless she really had to and she figured that there might be a way to keep the girl around so they could get to know each other better. Then she had to figure out a way to pay Ranma back for saving her life the other day, she was still having nightmares about that thing that had tried to attack her.  
  
Basic skills in martial arts was not the proper level to be at when a super powered monster was trying to kill you. The nightmares has gotten so bad that she had gotten her father to show her some more of the art and help her get some of her confidence back. The last couple of days had given her a lot of time to think about things since she now had chronic insomnia and had been averaging about four hours a night. Her sister Kasumi hadn't picked up on it yet, but she had to find a way to get around those nightmares or her sister would take steps. Kasumi meant well, but she had been reading those books from Dr. Tofu for so long that she considered herself to be and authority on some problems. Nabiki had been forced to go through several weeks of counseling when her mother had died in the hospital and Dr. Tofu and she had no intention of ever doing so again. She knew what her problems were and didn't need to tell some stranger what they were just yet. Now that Ranma was back in town she might have a way to get herself out of the house and pay her back and relieve some of the pressure.  
  
"Was there anything else about the fight that you noticed?" She asked.  
  
"No ma'am, just those three girls fighting off that one in the cloak and nearly loosing due to the gas and poisons being tossed around."  
  
"Are they still there?"  
  
"Yeah, I snuck in and heard Dr. Tofu talking about holding them until tomorrow."  
  
"Excellent, I'll give you a bonus the next time we see each other."  
  
"Thanks Nabiki!" The girl said and hung up.  
  
Nabiki put her cell phone away and finished taking down the last of her notes and pulled out the file she had made up on Ranma, something she did for everyone that caught her interest in one form or another, to add in the newest information she had acquired. She took a second to lock her door before she started though. There was no way she was going to trust Genma when he was in the house and she had new information on Ranma that would allow her to be found. That man gave her the creeps, he seemed to be more than the simple vagrant that she originally thought he was and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't seem to find any information on him that would prove it. He kept secrets and always seemed to have something up his sleeve. Three to five times a week he would go out to one of the local bars to take in the atmosphere, even taking daddy along every now and then before they returned blind stinking drunk and passed out in the dojo.   
  
On more than one occasions the security system she had installed around the house had detected him moving around early in the morning. She had no clue what he was doing, but usually he would go to the kitchen and finish off all the leftovers before anyone else had a chance to eat them. At other times he would leave the house at two in the morning and vanish for about three hours before he returned with a small bag of something under his arm. The security system hadn't been able to get a good look at what he was bringing into the house though, just that it was about the size of a small back pack and that he always took it back to his room and seemed just a little to pleased with himself. A constant search of the guest room had failed to turn up that bag or any of it's supposed contents. What was even worse was that her daddy just didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with his old friend, they were buddies that had gone through hell together.   
  
She had tried to get the to talk about what happened to them during their training, but they just shuddered and refused. Instead they would change the subject or go and play a few games of Go before going out to drink. There was a secret there that she wanted to know, but so far she had failed to get past their defenses along with some mutterings about the Master and his Ways. She had some idea what had happened to them though, at least some guesses, and figured that it had been bad and that Ranma had been put through something similar. Thought it didn't help that Genma always talked about his son as if he was a retarded moron that couldn't do anything right unless he was there to guide him in the right direction.  
  
It was a giant load of bull shit, but there wasn't anything she could do about it at the movement. She would have liked nothing better than to kick the guy out on the street and get rid of him, but there was just no way to it. With her notes finished she stood up, grabbed a few things, unlocked the door, and headed down stairs to talk to Kasumi for a second. Genma was in his usual place playing Go with her daddy, they were cheating each other too, a sight she had grown used to over the last few months with Genma around. Maybe if she could find a way to get him to find a job, that would get him out of her hair and prove that he wasn't the freeloader he seemed to be. Ever since he had arrived he had forced them to make twice as much food as normal, eating as much in one sitting than the whole family ate at the same time. Even Kasumi had complained about the amount of rice she had to cook up on a daily basis and that was rare for her sister the space case.  
  
Pretending to ignore the slob, she entered the kitchen and saw that Kasumi was cleaning up a mess by the fridge. "Hi Sis."  
  
"Hi."  
  
"I'm going to be out of the house for a while and you don't need to make me supper if you want to."  
  
"Where are you going?" Kasumi asked as she put away the mop, tossed some of the water out side into the grass, and put away the bucket.  
  
"A friend of mine has been injured, I was going to go and check on her." Nabiki said and wondered if she had given to much away.  
  
"Alright, I'll still make you something to eat though, if you don't Mr. Saotome will take care of anything extra."  
  
Nabiki smirked. "I know, I'll be back later on tonight."  
  
"Bye, have fun." Kasumi said and waved as Nabiki went to put on her shoes and left the house. Though she did take a second to glare at Genma before she left, the longer he lived with them the clearer and clearer it became that certain decisions were going to have to be made. And soon.  
  
Dr. Tofu's clinic was the same as normal when she entered the front room and saw his old secretary sitting behind her counter drinking some tea. She looked up and smiled as she recognized Nabiki from the few times she had visited in the past. "Hello Nabiki you haven't been by in a long time, how are you today?"  
  
She shrugged. "Pretty good I suppose, do you have a patient named Ranma here? She's a friend of mine and I wanted to check up on her."  
  
"She stopped by this morning and had a little accident, I'll see if she can see anyone yet. The last I had heard she was unconscious and her other friends were watching over her." The old woman said as she got up and headed back into the clinic.  
  
A few seconds later she came back with a purple haired Chinese girl dressed in some kind of white leather and silk armor on her heels, the girl was armed to the teeth. She turned to Nabiki and looked her over for a few seconds. "What you need see Ranma for?"  
  
"She's a friend of mine and I wanted to know if she was okay. Why?"  
  
"Ranma awake right now, but the poison is still being neutralized..." Shampoo said.  
  
"Poison?!" Nabiki gasped. "I thought she had just been hurt in a fight, no mentioned poison to me."  
  
"Is true, follow me, but be careful around Ranma. She has many enemies in this part of the city."  
  
Nabiki nodded as the girl used one of her bonbori to point down the hall. "That way."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
As they entered the room Nabiki saw that that there was another girl sitting on a nearby bed next to the one Ranma was in. She was Chinese as well and wearing the same kind of armor the purple haired girl, though this one was of red leather and white silk. There was a strange character written across their breast plates, but she had no clue what it meant. Ranma was looking a little bruised, but otherwise alright as she sat in bed with that strange red cat of hers splayed out on the pillow nearby. Ranma looked up as she entered and smiled as she recognized Nabiki.  
  
"Hi Nabiki, what are you doing here?"   
  
"Well I heard you had been injured and came by to see how you were."  
  
"Ah, nothing to worry about, I just underestimated someone and they caught me off guard. I'll know better next time they show up."  
  
"What happened anyway, I thought you were just going to go and see Dr. Tofu to have him look at the other problem." Nabiki asked.  
  
Shampoo and Perfume blinked and turned to look at Ranma and in an eerie unison asked. "What other problem?"  
  
Ranma sweatdropped and started laughing nervously. "Um..."  
  
"They don't know? Sorry Ranma, I thought they knew." Nabiki muttered.  
  
"What wrong with Ranma?" Shampoo asked, she looked worried.  
  
"It's nothing Shampoo, just a little problem I've been having with controlling some of my more potent abilities."  
  
"You not practicing enough?" Perfume asked as Shampoo nodded.  
  
"This isn't about practicing, I'm getting power surges when I use my special abilities and thought there might be a medical reason for it, so I came here to see if Dr. Tofu could find out anything."  
  
"Is dangerous?" Shampoo asked, actually used to things like magic because of her great grandmother.  
  
"Not really." Ranma lied, it wasn't dangerous for her, but it might be for anyone that got on the way if she ever lost control of the surge.  
  
"So why did this girl attack you earlier Ranma?" Nabiki said as she sat down on one of the other beds.  
  
"One of Shampoo's enemies I think, she mistook me for someone else and tried to kill me with a poison of some kind." Ranma said with a look towards Shampoo.  
  
"She was Pink, twin sister to Link, both are old enemies of Shampoo. We been fighting for years now, ever since Pink tried to poison Shampoo when we just children. When Link, Pink twin come by a few minutes later, she gave me antidote to poison, but Shampoo confused and angry so she kick Link ass. They've been out to get ever since." Shampoo said.  
  
"It's been years since that happened, why are they still trying to kill you?" Ranma asked.  
  
Perfume snorted. "It's Shampoo's fault, Pink and Link are specialized in using poisonous   
plants and martial arts. When ever Shampoo had to go back to their village to get something she would look the twins up and attack them to keep them out of her hair while she was there. This usually meant that she knocked both of them out and stomped on them a few hundred times to make sure they stayed that way. It's only in the last few years that they have been getting really vicious though. Shampoo had managed to get them to lay off last year though, I think she did something to make them mad again. Shampoo?"  
  
Ranma glanced over at Shampoo, but she was blushing and trying to look cute for everyone.  
  
"The bonds of sisterhood are a beautiful thing." Shampoo said and rubbed her toe on the ground in front of her nervously as she grinned at them.  
  
"See?" Perfume said as she rolled her eyes.  
  
"Ranma, you have weird friends." Nabiki muttered, she'd never heard of anything like this before.  
  
"I'll have to agree with you there, Nabiki, I have lots of odd friends." Ranma said. "Is this Pink going to come back?"  
  
"Yes, though I'm not sure when." Perfume said. "She knows that we are here now and will become even more dangerous, we have to be very careful. Those two are very dangerous, even the Elders tend to treat them as carefully as they can."  
  
"They can beat the Elders?" Ranma asked in surprise.  
  
"No, but they might get lucky, they know how to find and grow all kinds of really rare plants by modifying them with their Ki to make them grow faster. Even the Elders can't keep track of all the different kinds of poisons those two know about. Their mother, Blink, has been sent to take revenge on more than one outsider in the past and they know everything she does." Perfume said.  
  
"How do we defend against someone like that? I have my speed and can probably dodge most anything they throw at me." Ranma muttered.  
  
"Stomp on them, they like bugs that just won't go away." Shampoo muttered darkly as she twirled her bonbori absently.  
  
There is the sound of the old doors to the clinic being broken down just as Ranma was about to say something. She moves off the bed as Shampoo and Perfume stand up with their weapons in hand, Ranma notices that Perfume had pulled out a couple of nasty looking scimitars that were gleaming in the overhead light. They run out of the room to see what is going on, Nabiki hangs back when she realizes that this might mean a fight and she couldn't to anything to help out as she was currently. Ranma leads the way out into the main room just in time to see that same girl in the cloak standing in the door way with a pair of short swords in each hand. Those patients that had been in the front room had already fled, even the old secretary so Ranma didn't worry about them as she glared at the cloaked figure.  
  
"Pink. Why are you doing this?" Perfume asked in Chinese as she readied her scimitar for battle.  
  
"Revenge and satisfaction. Over" Pink said as she grinned.  
  
"Where is Link? You two always work together." Shampoo asked.  
  
Ranma looked confused. "Can you please speak a language I understand?" She muttered.  
  
Turning towards Shampoo, Pink smirked as she tensed. "Your heathen friend seems to be a bit confused, but most of these barbarians are very stupid so what does it matter? Over."   
  
"You leave sister Ranma out of this Pink, you are the one causing all the problems and we will stop you if we have to." Shampoo yelled as she readied her bonbori for battle.  
  
"TIME TO DIE SHAMPOO!!" Pink yelled as she launched herself toward Shampoo with a big grin on her face. "Over."  
  
**********  
  
"Where is she?" Luna muttered as she paced back and forth on the coffee table, her tail twitching in agitation.  
  
"Luna, Rei's grandfather kicked her out of the shrine." Usagi said, she looked worried as she glanced at her friends.  
  
"This is my fault." Rei muttered darkly. "She was a pain, but I didn't want her to be kicked out like this.  
  
"This isn't your fault Rei, its just the way things turned out. You know how stressed she was with us always doing everything we could to push her into acting like our princess." Ami said, she still hadn't forgiven Ranma for yelling at them, but she has come to terms with it.  
  
"But Ami, she was kicked out because she wouldn't' tell grandfather about our fights or explain anything. It's bad enough that I've been grounded until further notice." Rei grumbled, she hadn't been grounded in years.  
  
Usagi hugged her.  
  
"What do we do if another monster shows up?" Ami wondered. She was used to working with the other two and didn't want to go back to like it was when it was just her and Usagi, luckily they had found Rei right after that or she might have been overwhelmed by all these attacks by now. With Ranma around the fighting had gotten to be a lot safer, she didn't know what she would do if Ranma decided not to come back.  
  
"Do any of you know where Ranma went?" Luna asked as she glared at them. "We have to find her, she could be in danger."  
  
"I thought she would ask to stay at one of your houses when Grandpa kicked her out." Rei muttered and glanced around. "She didn't show up?"  
  
"No." Usagi said, she was feeling really bad about this. Ranma was a pain in the ass, but she had been something the team needed against Jedite. She was strong enough to take on most anything by herself, but with her gone things were back to the way they were before she showed up and they were all worried.  
  
Ami pulled out her small computer and started typing, but after a few minutes she came up with nothing. "The computer can't find her anywhere nearby, if she's left town it will take a few days to find her."  
  
"Did any of you try calling her on the communicator?" Luna asked.  
  
"I did, but I couldn't get her to answer it." Rei said.  
  
"I did too, but she wouldn't answer me either." Usagi said.  
  
"Then all we can do is hope that she contacts us, but in the meantime I'll set my computer up to scan for her out past the city limits. It should only take a few hours to set up a program to do it." Ami explained as she donned her glasses, they gleamed.  
  
"I can understand Ranma being mad, but why didn't that idiot Ito contact me?" Luna muttered darkly. "Now for something else I wanted to know, how did Grandfather Hino manage to keep up with you and see that fight?"  
  
"Grandpa is a very skilled martial artist Luna, he doesn't show it very often, but he can defend himself against most anyone. Remember he was doing a little training with Ranma as well in the mornings to get a little better control of his Ki." Rei said.  
  
"Ranma has those skills because she's a Scout, Right?" Usagi asked.  
  
"No, her skills are all learned. When she transforms she becomes a lot stronger than even us because the transformation makes us about fifty times stronger and faster than we are in our normal form. With Ranma this is huge amount and she has to be really careful when she is in Scout form not to cause accidental damage." Ami explained as the nibbled on a cookie.  
  
"She hasn't really told us much about herself has she?" Usagi said.  
  
"I had noticed that, but didn't really think much of it and figured that she just liked to keep her life private. How about you Luna? Did Ito ever say anything about Ranma's life?"  
  
"I know more than you do, but that is almost nothing to worry about. Ranma is still struggling to overcome being considered a Princess. She does not like that idea, if she had I would have tried to make her take up the duties of our Princess, but since doesn't I had to back down."  
  
"She is very much a tomboy that's for sure, but I thought that was because of the last few years being trained as a martial artist." Usagi said. "I know, we can find her a boyfriend and get her over this silly phase to cheer her up! How about Umino?"   
  
Luna started hacking up a fur ball in shock. "Um...U-Usagi..."  
  
"Hey, that's a great idea." Rei said with an evil grin.  
  
"Ranma doesn't..." Luna tried again.  
  
"We have to find her first." Rei muttereed.  
  
"Then we can find her a dress, and some make up, and it will so perfect!" Usagi squealed.   
  
Luna sighed, they just never listened to her at all.  
  
**********  
  
The little bell above the door jingled as it opened and the tall man in an expensive suit walked in and looked around like he owned the place. He was about six foot tall, had long curly brown hair, and was wearing a pair of sunglasses as he smiled. The real estate agent that looked up when he entered, gasped, and developed little hearts in her eyes and blushed a little as she took in ever square inch of him. She stood up, adjusted her business suit and walked over to him with an inviting smile. "Hello, may I help you?"  
  
He smiled a little more and bowed. "I was looking for a private house to rent for a few months."  
  
"How private?"  
  
"Isolated from the neighbors."  
  
"Those are pretty expensive, but we have a few available if you want to take a look at them. How many rooms were you looking for?"  
  
"Three to six would be perfect." He said with a grin.  
  
She nodded and motioned for him to follow her to a desk. "Just follow me, we can get the paper work set up and we can go out and look at all the sites if you want, Mr..."  
  
"Sanjouin Masato*, I'm setting up a place where I can work from home and want a little privacy." He said as his eyes glinted.  
  
**********  
  
From outside the clinic looked as normal and peaceful as it always did, but if one had wandered by at just the right time in the afternoon they would have been greeted with a sight they had never encountered before. First came a series of screams that always preceded a fight, then a sound like a bunch of silverware being sharpened at a high rate of speed. In any part of Tokyo these sounds would have caused quite a bit of horror and fear among those that witnessed it. Here in Nerima it was a whole different story, neighbors barely blinked an eye at the sound, though several did pull out video cameras and point them at the building. People passing by hopped up on a nearby wall and pulled out a bag of popcorn to pass the time while the fight was on. This was for the sounds of the fight alone, but experience had taught them all that it would erupt out onto the street in a matter of minutes.  
  
Inside the clinic Shampoo was slowly backing away from Pink's lightning fast attacks as she blocked the blades with the metal handles of her Bonbori. She was surprised at how much better the girl had gotten since their last fight a few years ago. Pink seemed to be a lot faster and even more driven by revenge, it was an odd sight to see the peaceful girl trying to kill someone like this. Shampoo was the only girl they had ever acted like this against, whenever the two met they ended up fighting like cats and dogs. Pink's sister Link was nearly as bad, but she tended to be a bit more accepting about things, though she still had the same unwavering dislike for Shampoo. Other than that the two girls were well respected in their village of Yaocaicun a couple days walk from Shampoo's village higher up on the mountain.  
  
Shampoo's fight with Pink took a turn for the weird when Pink suddenly developed four arms, each hand holding a long curved knife and redoubled her attack. Backing away in shock, Shampoo could do nothing but block the incoming knives and slowly back away under the quick attack. Then she growled, spun her bonbori around slammed the weighted maces into Pink's body and forced her to jump back, her cloak swirled about her body like a shield as she landed on the other side of the room. When it was thrown to the side Pink and Link were standing there glaring at the purple headed Amazon. Pink still had her two long curved knives, but Link was there as well and she had put her knives away and pulled out a couple of small colored balls in her hands. She smirked at Shampoo as she sent them flying right for the girl's head with a quick flick of her wrist.  
  
"Get out of way!" Shampoo yelled as she used her Bonbori like a bat to hit one of the two balls Link had thrown. She tackled Ranma and Perfume even as the ball was exploding across the side of her weapon in a wave of pink colored gas, they went flying out of the window of the clinic, and out into the street even as the other balls exploded all around them. The ball Pink had thrown hit the floor where Shampoo had been standing and exploded in a puff of blue smoke, they two mixed to create a special kind of gas Pink and Link liked to use in their fights.   
  
One red head, and two others girls flew out of the clinic at the exact same time that a group of guys from the Furinkan Long Distance seniors track team. They were jogging by doing their daily five mile run when they were caught in the middle of the fight and the gas wafted out of the clinic and around them as they gasped for air. Ranma was shocked when the guys all started coughing like they were about to cough up some major organs, then they all staggered to a stop and dropped to their knees. Ranma was about to go and help them when she noticed that they were all starting to look really weird and drool.  
  
"What is that stuff?" Ranma asked, it didn't look like that strange root Pink had used on her earlier.  
  
"Shampoo does not know, Pink and Link are expert in using plants, herbs, and poisons in their attacks. They are champions of village back home." Shampoo explained. "Win many village tournament this way, but no know secret of gas attack."  
  
"Shampoo's right Ranma, these two tend to have a very eccentric view of their abilities and like to use them to make sure outsiders don't stay very long at their village." Perfume said. "Their have been rumors about them experimenting on some people, but even I know they aren't that sick."   
  
"Is potent drug, last for several hours and make one have funny dreams." Shampoo said as she watched the guys stagger to their feet with blissful looks of ecstasy on their faces.  
  
Jumping out of the clinic with their weapons drawn, Pink and Link looked around to see the guys and snapped their fingers. "Drat. Over." They muttered together.   
  
A couple of the guys fell over and started to giggle, drooling all over themselves in their drug induced high. The rest just wandered off and talked to bushes, small pets, ferns, and poles along the way, it was all caught on film by the hidden watchers who were grinning madly. They hadn't had fight like this in years and they could sell it to the TV networks for a fortune, with a bit of editing of course. Pink and Link turned as more balls appeared in their hands and prepared to throw them again. This time Ranma paid attention to the balls themselves and saw that they were a different color than the others. Jumping up from where she had landed Ranma ran forward and launched herself about ten feet into the air, pulling her knees up to her chest as her arms shot forward to throw a couple of rocks she had picked up. The rocks flew out and hit both girls in the head as she came down before they could react. It was enough of a distraction that it allowed her to come down on them and bounce off Pink's head, flip over them, and land behind the to do a fast leg sweep to send both girls to the ground in a pile of cloth and limbs. Whatever was in those balls was proving to be very dangerous, she didn't even want to see what these did. It was just to dangerous to everybody, that meant that she had to get all the innocents away from the fight.  
  
"Move, we have to get out of here." Ranma yelled as she jumped to a nearby wall and almost laded on a guy eating some popcorn. He gave her a thumbs up and offered her some, but she was to busy to notice.  
  
"We stop now!" Shampoo said as she pulled out her sword from subspace, it's long curved blade glinted in the sunlight as she spun it around and nearly castrated one of the runners as he staggered by.  
  
"HEHEHEHE…HEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!" The stoned runners laughed out as he stripped all his clothing off to see if he could find a would, found nothing, and streaked down the street and into traffic to prove to the world that he was still whole.  
  
SKREEEEEEEEEEEETCH!!  
  
Being missed by inches the guy fell down and lay there laughing. "HAHAHAHAH...ouch...HAHEHEHEHE!"  
  
"You will not get away with that! Over." Pink yelled as she tripped Shampoo and threw several balls into the air, grabbed her sister, and jumped to the roof of the clinic. "We will return to complete this! Over."   
  
The balls landed, but Perfume was already there and jumping out of the way and over by Ranma as they exploded in a wave of dark smoke. Then seconds later the smoke seemed to spark and burst into fire that consumed the smoke in a giant fire ball. They dived behind a wall and let the wave of fire roll by before they jumped up to see that everyone had cleared out of the area, well except for the odd runner, but they were all stoned so it didn't matter since they were all having such a good time. Surprisingly enough the fire hadn't damaged the clinic and only caused a large discoloration on the pavement in front of the door. Ranma realized that it hadn't been that dangerous, but more of a distraction while Pink and Link got out of there. She cursed to herself and went to make sure that Shampoo was alright.  
  
"Those two are tricky." Perfume snapped as she stood up.  
  
"Why did they run like that?" Ranma wondered out loud.  
  
"They were low on ammunition, they usually have about a dozen of those balls with them at any one time. Usually it is more than an enough to take out a fighter, we managed to dodge almost everything they had." Perfume explained.  
  
Shampoo nodded as she walked over. "Shampoo usually take bag from girls when knock out, forgot to do it this time. Never seen balls of fire though, that new."  
  
"We have to stop them before they can get more of those thing." Ranma said and was about to jump up on the roof and go after then, but Perfume stopped her.  
  
"Don't worry about it. Pink and Link are a pain, but they would never kill anyone but another Amazon unless it was life for death. Even those runners were only drugged, they will be fine when it wears off. They will also take the rest of the night off to tend to their wounds and make up some more of those balls and that gives us a little time to rest before they strike at us again."  
  
"But..." Ranma tried.  
  
"Perfume right, we check on Tofu and others in clinic first." Shampoo said and gave Ranma a shove. "You still need rest from Mandragora root, that come first along with hot meal, then Pink and Link get stomped on."  
  
"Um...right." Ranma said and headed into the clinic.  
  
**********  
  
In the dock yard a storm was raging across the bay, lightning flashed from cloud to cloud and the winds produced six foot waves that were crashing against the docks where ships huddles in fear. All in all it was a pretty normal storm for this time of year and no one was particularly worried about, though there was one ship that had been docked for a couple of months now that no one had touched since it was towed into the dock, tied up, and forgotten about after the police got done with it. It was a huge rusted ship that at one time had been a cruise liner. Recently it had been in some kind of scam that ended up with hundreds of people adrift at sea when something had revealed the plot. Thought the police had been baffled about how over a thousand people had thought this piece of scrap was a normal cruise liner with a crew and everything.  
  
Ever since it had been towed her by the tug boats and tied to the dock, rumors had arisen that the ship was haunted and teenagers liked to use the ship as a kind of test to prove themselves by spending the night in the rusted hulk. There were even stories that the ship had been the scene of a battle with the Sailor Scouts, but very few believed it, they were only an urban legend after all. This particular ship was currently the subject of multiple flashes of lightning as they arched across it's hull and struck it's rusty decks antenna as they rose into the sky. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't have mattered all that much, but some rumors are true and just the right kind of circumstances were in place to bring about the impossible.  
  
Like will always attracts like, so when the dark energies of two dead Dark Kingdom warriors found and merged with themselves on the deck of the ship where the final battle took place, the energy coalesced and merged as the rain washed across the broken and dented deck and had lightning charge it with pure energy. As all three of these things came together a dark miracle happened and the water started to bubble and flow in a different direction than the rain was flowing. Seconds later it started to rise up like a snake, undulating chaotically as it struggled against the natural flow of the water and formed presidue legs and arms. Then a head and details like fingers and toes started to form on the water like body. It stood there for several seconds as the final details finally formed to reveal a female form with short wavy blonde hair and a thin build. It relaxed a little and the water altered slowly to look like skin, taking on a tanned look and well formed curves.  
  
A dark gray general's uniform formed around her as she opened her arms and let the rain fall down on her, she gloried in the rain and started to laugh and spin around even as black leather boots formed on her feet. Dancing across the deck she celebrated a return to life and started to accumulate some energy, but the limited amount availible wasn't enough to keep her going for long. Still, she wasn't hampered by any of the old restrictions either, she could feel the perfect kind of energy out there for the taking and all she had to do was find it. There was just one little problem, she was weaker than any Youma she had ever encountered or could even remember. Her memories were a bit hazy as well, she seemed to have two different sets, where one set belonged to someone named Titus and someone else named Jedite. She wasn't sure who was who, but knew that it had something to do with Jedite. She shook her head and could feel her memories starting to slowly integrate themselves back into her mind.  
  
She was way to low on energy at the moment, no matter how much she absorbed out of the air from all the lightning, it wasn't enough and would need to be replenished if she wanted to survive the night. As Titus she would have had enough energy to go without feeding for several weeks, but she had just been reborn in a way and had to start her life over with some kind of energy that would work just as good or better than the dark energies she was used to. She moved across the ship and sensed that there was movement down in the lower section of the rusted hulk and that it was alive, it's life essence was calling to her as she stood there. A few minutes later she was moving through the lower decks of the ship tracking the life forces by feel alone, the lack of the lighting made it pitch black down here. She rounded a corner to see a flash light shining down the corridor a little ways away, whoever it was they hadn't seen her yet and she wanted to sneak up on them and see what was going on before she made her move.  
  
Standing against the wall she willed her body liquify and seemed to shrink in on herself as she lost her shape and spread out across the floor and crawled snake like down the hall and looked around the next corner carefully. She smirked to herself as she caught sight of a guy and a girl kissing passionately, there seemed to be something in the air around them that was activating her energy radar as she flowed forward and rose up behind the distracted couple in a wave and enveloped them before they could react. They didn't even have time to scream as she sucked the dry. She grinned as their odd energy was pulled from their bodies and made them glow brightly, a wave of something passed through her new body that was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Moving off the couple as they passed out she took human form again and staggered off as she made her way to the deck to get back out in the rain again.  
  
Taking that energy was unlike anything she had ever done before, the dark energies of the Dark Kingdom tended to make a person more aggressive and dangerous. This made for some very dangerous beasts and warriors roaming about the Dark Kingdom, which was exactly what Queen Beryl had wanted, but this energy was different, she had never really thought that different energies would have a different effect on one's body. She shook her head as she stumbled onto the deck and out into the rain and breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever she had just taken had been more powerful than anything Jedite's old plans had ever netted in energy. She felt full and powerful again as she walked along and let the water cascade across her body and let the water wash away her tension. When she reached the side of the ship that was nearest the dock she spotted a large number of cargo boxes sitting next to the ship, these things were about fifteen feet long by ten foot tall by eight foot wide. Large enough to ship a car in with room to spare and they were piled up so high that they were even with the deck of the ship in places. With a casual jump she was on top of one and ran to the end and jumped to he next one, and the next, and so on until she was bouncing across the roofs of the dock area buildings.  
  
Now that she had some freedom she wanted to do a couple of things, the biggest one was to get her revenge on those Scouts for being the cause of death for both Jedite and Titus, but first she wanted to learn about her powers and to perfect them before she took on those girls. That meant getting out of the Jubaan area and going somewhere to perfect her abilities a name cropped up in her spotty memories as the perfect place to go, she wouldn't stand out, she could practice strange attacks out in the open and no one would care, and she could take a couple of years to recover. Now all she had to do was find the place, she knew it wasn't near the docks though so she would have to find a map of Tokyo and find the right district. It even rolled off her tongue with ease, Nerima.  
  
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH!!!" She laughed out loud, it just seemed like the right thing to do.  
  
**********  
  
"Damn!" Ranma muttered as she stood up and looked in the direction of the docks.  
  
"What wrong Ranma?" Shampoo asked.  
  
Ranma wasn't sure what to tell Shampoo, on one hand she wanted to tell her about everything that happened to her in the last couple of months. On the other she had to keep people from knowing about her status as a Sailor Scout, even if it meant holding back in a fight or not transforming in front of people. Keeping the very promise that had gotten her kicked out of the shrine in the first place. Right at that moment she didn't know what to think, she could feel this odd dangerous feeling heading right for Nerima. If it had been going towards Jubaan she would have just let the others take care of it since all the monsters usually went there, but this one was the first to leave the city and head out this way and she had to wonder if this new general she was waiting for had more brains that Blondie. Luna had also explained to her at one time that as she grew in power she would be able to detect things like this, it meant she was slowly growing more and more in touch with her powers. That was something that gave her mixed feelings.  
  
On one hand she was proud that all her training was working out, but on the other hand she was a little ticked off. Being a girl just didn't suit her and the more she struggled she didn't want to deal with it at all, but no matter how much she tried to fight it she had found that she it came down to adapt or die. That kind of reminded her of all that time she had spent with the Amazons, they had helped her out quite a bit, especially Shampoo. She glanced at the worried Amazon and debated what to do, if she kept quiet she would have to fight the thing by herself. Normally this wouldn't have mattered, but to keep her secret she would have to fight it while untransformed and that would take hours. She would need a little help to speed things up and keep the innocents safe from this thing. "Send out your senses, can you feel that dark energy heading this way. That aura?"  
  
Tilting her head, Shampoo frowned and tried to tap the limited Ki abilities that her Great Grandmother had been teaching her how to use over the last year or so. She had always been astounded by how easily Ranma could use them, picking up moves almost instantly and mastering them completely within a few days. At first she couldn't really feel anything except that Ranma had incredibly huge amount of Ki just under the surface, but as the seconds ticked by she began to feel something else off in the distance. Whatever it was the thing was full of dark energy, not really evil, but darkness that could very easily turn to evil if given half a chance. "Is aura of darkness?"  
  
"Yeah, and it's heading this way." Ranma said.  
  
"I can't sense anything Ranma." Perfume said as she tried to see what they were doing, but her Ki abilities were really limited. She was a fighter, but Shampoo was a champion fighter and had been taught how to use the Ki in her body to fight. Something Perfume had never had a chance to achieve to their fullest, instead she was using a kind of self taught ability to use her Ki.   
  
"Delve deep into your body and find your center, then latch onto it and expand your senses out from your body." Ranma said absently as she continued to monitor the Youma heading this way. Why in the hell did it feel so damned familiar? Was it one that she had fought before this and had somehow managed to survive through some quirk of luck and wanted to get it's revenge? Or was it something else she had encountered before, but didn't have a chance to take down like the others? Jedite had been into disguising his Youma as some kind of human as they worked. This had also made them a little easier to find, but that was because of Ami more than anything else. So who or what was this?   
  
Perfume blinked in surprise at Ranma's comment and did as she suggested, the Elders had never bothered to tell her how to scan her surroundings before. They considered it a special ability to be given to a rare few and she wasn't on that list. At first she didn't quite understand what Ranma was talking about, but after a few minutes of intense concentration she found what she was looking for and managed to do exactly what Ranma suggested. It was really easy and she gasped as the world opened up around her, she feel the blast furnace of raging Ki that was Ranma, the campfire that surged within Shampoo and her own candle's level of power. In the back room was another source of Ki that could only be Doctor Tofu, his energy was just a little bit bigger than Shampoo's level, but tightly controlled.   
  
"I'm sorry Ranma but I still can't figure out what you're looking at."  
  
"You will get it, your Ki control needs more time to grow, but for now you should only be able to sense things around you, perhaps everybody within the building. That's the first step, after that it gets easier and easier with every use. There is a monster coming towards Nerima and it's giving off a lot dark energies."  
  
"A monster?" Perfume asked. "What kind?"  
  
"We call them Youma, they usually appear over in another district, but for some reason this one is making a bee line for this area instead. This isn't good, a regular human can't fight these things head on, they are very strong and incredibly dangerous to normal people and can cause untold amounts of damage if you aren't prepared for them, even death. Those like us who have trained in martial arts like we have our whole lives should be able to defend against it to some degree so long as it doesn't drain our life energies from us."  
  
"Shampoo never sense anything like this before, can feel darkness within the Ki that remind of Musk warrior from long ago, though. Some of it same, mostly different."  
  
"You mean that possessed Musk warrior we were forced to kill about ten years ago when it tried to kill everyone in the village?" Perfume said, she would never forget the day when this thing had appeared out of nowhere and started killing them with ease and for no reason other than to kill. It hadn't even possessed a mind to speak of, but was nothing more than an engine of destruction that destroyed everything in it's path. It had taken down almost a third of the warriors in the village before it was stopped by an Elder and even then it's death had taken the old woman with it when she used a secret technique to make it's head explode. Seconds after it's head was removed it's whole body had convulsed and exploded, leaving a ten foot crater where they had been fighting.  
  
"That day Shampoo mother die, she remember that day well even though try to forget. Day mother killed before her eyes. Monster stood in front of Shampoo for several seconds, remember how it felt when it was that close. This energy make Shampoo feel the same, but it also different, as if only a small part of creature like mad man."   
  
"Shampoo you have got to work on your Japanese." Perfume said.  
  
She nodded and blushed. "Shampoo try, need practice to figure out odd language."  
  
"It will be here in an hour if it keep up this speed." Ranma said.  
  
"We prepare to kill?" Shampoo asked.  
  
"Can you track it if we split up?" Ranma asked.  
  
"To to easy." Shampoo said as she waved her hand back and forth and grinned.  
  
"Then try to figure out where it it's most likely to stop and help protect the innocent bystanders that will be in the area, they have probably never encountered anything like this before."  
  
"Where will you be?" Perfume asked.  
  
"I will be calling on some friends and get them to help us out, they owe me a favor from when I helped them out last night. They can also kill these things while you two can help out by keeping others from getting hurt." Ranma said as she walked over to her pack.  
  
"We can take care of this thing on our own Ranma." Perfume said. She did not like being regulated to a position that protected innocents, but left her out of the battle.  
  
"These things can drain the life out of you with a simple touch Perfume, but if you want to fight you can do so after all the innocents are out of the way." Ranma said, her voice taking on an aura of command popping without her knowing about it. One of the things Cologne had taught her was that most Amazons were arrogant to a fault. She hadn't come right out and said it, but there had been several stories that described the blindingly stupid ways most Amazons went about doing things. More often than not this kind of thinking tended to get the girls killed in a situation that they didn't need to die in. This fight wasn't exactly something to shrug off, but they would have to prove that they could keep up with the Scouts before she would allow them to do more than protect the bystanders.  
  
"Shampoo is Amazon, can kill any monster that challenge her!" Shampoo snapped and pulled her sword from where she had stored it earlier.  
  
"Then act like one and follow my lead." Ranma snapped right back.  
  
"We will prove ourselves Ranma." Perfume said.  
  
That's fine, but remember that the innocents come first, then the monster can be killed."   
  
"Understood." Perfume said with a nod. "Shampoo lets get going, you still have an idea where this thing is right?"  
  
"Yes."   
  
They jumped to the roof of the clinic and took off, heading for the edge of Jubaan and Nerima as they tried to figure out where it would most likely come first. Ranma nodded as she pulled out the stupid looking communicator she had been given, it was pink and had these glittery little suns on it. The mere sight of the thing made her shutter at times, but she had come to terms with being a Scout and did have fun with it at times. She had turned it off last night to make sure she wasn't bothered by the other scouts for a little while, she had needed a few hours to herself so that she could calm down and think about things on her own. She touched a button and activated its 'Message Recall' function, it had taken nearly an hour for Ito to explain why she had to carry the silly thing with her at all times when there was a perfectly good phone nearby. There were about ten messages waiting for her as it quickly booted up and she hit a few other buttons to open them and see what they had to stay. Someone must have been waiting for it to do that because it beeped at her almost instantly, with a smirk she tapped Mercury's symbol.  
  
"Ranma! Where have you been?!" Ami yelled.  
  
"I was taking care of a little personal business, but something came up while I was doing so. What's up?" Ranma said.  
  
"Everybody is worried about you."   
  
"I know, I'm sorry about that, I just wanted a few hours to myself to calm down after getting kicked out of the shrine."  
  
"You could have come to either me or Usagi, we would've helped you out." Ami snapped and tried to glare at Ranma, but she didn't do a very good job of it.  
  
"We don't have time to worry about that right now, turn on your computer, there is a Youma heading for Nerima."  
  
"What? Why didn't I detect it?" Ami muttered as she brought out the small device. "Where...ah, there it is, it doesn't seem to be a Youma like what we usually deal with. It's energy readings are all wrong, more powerful in some ways and weaker in others."  
  
"Can you and the others give me a hand with it?"  
  
"It's heading for Nerima? Is that where you are right now?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"It will take us about forty to fifty minutes to get all the way over there Ranma, that should give us just barely enough time to intercept it."  
  
"That's what I was thinking as well, me and a couple of friends are going to keep it occupied until you get here to fight it."  
  
"Were on our way, but we will have a little chat with you when were done Ranma." Ami said, getting the glare right this time.  
  
Ranma smirked and nodded. "Sure thing, contact me when you get close and we can meet up somewhere."  
  
"Agreed." Ami said and turned disconnected the communicator.  
  
Ranma watched for a few seconds as Ami contacted Usagi and Rei, though really, really ugly, their little communicator's were pretty useful for the most part. They allowed for instant contact at any time so long as they were turned on, and even showed when one of the others was in use by making one the Scout symbols light up when they talking to one another. She put it away, moved her pack inside where it would be a little safer and told Ito to stay while she went to fight this monster. A part of her wasn't all that worried, but the other part of her was worried that this could be a retaliatory attack by Jedite for what they had done to him. It didn't seem possible, but they hadn't been able to find his body and left a lot of unanswered questions to sort out. If it was him or one of his monsters the Scouts would be in for a real fight this time. The Youma wouldn't be trying to get or protect the energy they usually collected, this time it would be out to kill them at any cost.   
  
She jumped back to the roof and sent her senses out, due to her powers she could see perfectly even though the sun had finally gone down for the night. Off in the distance she could just make out Shampoo and Perfume as they tried to head off the darkness heading their way. Ranma also noted that it was the same direction that Pink and Link had been heading when they ran off a few minutes ago, if those four met up things could go from bad to worse in an instant. Breaking into a run she had a bad feeling about this fight, something about it didn't feel right. She focused her Ki and started to pick up speed, moving at a blurring pace across the roofs and leaving shattered roof tiles every time her foot landed and rebounded. It was possible to move faster, but she could feel the magic in her body surging a little and knew she was pushing it. Any faster and she wouldn't be able to control the magic as well as she was, it was mixing with her Ki a little more everytime she tried to use it. There had to be a way control this without going to extreme lengths to do so.  
  
Leaping across an intersection, landing on a fence, running half a block, scaring a group of girls as she ran past, and launching back to a roof made her smirk though. No matter how odd her magic was acting, her martial arts abilities were just getting better and better with each passing day. She was right on the verge of learning how to project her Ki as well and once that happened she would have a new weapon to add to her abilities. She could form a Ki ball and shape like she did in her exercises in the afternoons, but projecting it like a weapons was still out of reach, but sooner or later she would master it. The last few days had been so distracting though, she hadn't had a chance to really practice the kind of technique she had been trying to develop. Cologne had described the process, but using Ki like she wanted to had certain draw backs that she hadn't been ready for at the time. Grandpa Hino's Ki techniques had been what gave her the idea, and that pure Ki idea would make an incredibly strong attack if she could learn to harness it correctly, creating a weapon that could kill a Youma in one massive blast.  
  
She knew sent her senses out again and knew she was very close to the Youma now, so she landed on the roof of a small run down apartment complex to get a better look at the area and see if she could spot it. These areas of Tokyo were so packed that getting around was almost impossible and fighting had to be done out in the streets instead of in a dojo or an empty lot. There were so many innocents around that getting them clear would be impossible, there was no way they could move this many people out in the short time they had. They would have to revise the plan and get the Youma to leave the area before they took it out. Looking around she spotted Shampoo and Perfume a few roofs over, they were talking to each other, and made her way over to talk to them. They looked up as she landed and waited for her make her way over to them as they gazed across the city trying to find the Youma. She could tell that they didn't think they could move all these people either, they rarely had to deal with this kind of crowding over in China and they were packed in like sardeens here. Their village was crowded, but nothing like Japan was even during the best of times.   
  
"There are to many people, we have to find a way to get the Youma to follow us away from here. Did you spot any parks nearby?"   
  
"No." Perfume said and Shampoo shook her head.  
  
"Then let's go out and look for one." Ranma said and jumped across the street to another building and started looking. When she was out of sight she pulled out the communicator and turned it on. "Ami?"  
  
"Ranma? Where are you? We are on our way, but I figure we are still about half an hour away." Ami said as Usagi and Rei crowded around behind her to look at Ranma on the screen.  
  
"I was just at the area where the Youma was going to end up and it's a crowded Apartment area, thousands of people. We need to find a park and lead him there somehow."  
  
  
**********  
  
Pink and Link landed on the edge of a roof, looked around to see if any of the traps they had set up to deter unwanted visitors had been tripped while they were gone. Everything looked like it had when they left so they opened the hatch to the roof and went inside what had been their home for the last week or so. As an old apartment complex this place had once been able to hole ten or so residents easily, but over time it had simply worn out and become less and less suitable for human habitation so the city had condemned it and put it on the list for buildings to be removed and temporary housing built in it's place. Only that had been a couple years ago and it had been over run with bugs and squatters that didn't have any other place to stay. Luckily no one had been there when they arrived and filled the whole building with natural pesticides to get rid of all the bugs.  
  
Most of the inside was a hollowed out shell with only the walls left standing, but it was perfect for their use. They had dug up the floor at one end of the room and planted one of their special gardens, it was coming along fine as it just started to bloom with plants that weren't normally seen outside their village. Within a few more days they could begin collecting some of the leaves, dry them out, and add them to their special attacks. They had also managed to acquire a small table, a couple of chairs, and a couple of long folding tables from a nearby trash can. Pink walked over to one of the chairs and removed her cloak and laid it across the back of the chair, she was not pleased at all as she sat down with a sigh. Their revenge on Shampoo hadn't gone as well as she thought it would have even with all of their poisons and special spores to use. Instead they had been forced to retreat when things got a little hairy and they ran short of ammunition.   
  
"Damn it! Over!" Pink snapped.  
  
"We will do better next time sister." Link said as she rolled out her bed roll and lay down. She was wore out and needed a few hours of sleep. "We also need to restock on your weapons. Over."  
  
"I know, I can't believe that we tossed off all those things and didn't even get one of those girls. Over." Pink said and flopped down in the chair with a sigh.  
  
"We will get them tomorrow. If it had been just Shampoo we would have gotten her, but that red headed girl was something else. She is a master, even you should have been able to see that. Over."  
  
"I know, but she was so young looking. Who would think a girl that young would have so much skill? Over."  
  
"I don't know, but I thinks she might have been that girl that spent a few months in Shampoo's village. The one that had the all the Elders shocked out of their minds. Over." Link said.  
  
"Maybe, but this is ridiculous. With our poisons and special attacks we should have been able to take out all three girls, instead we had to run away. We've taken down two and three dozen Muck fighters during a single attack and these three managed to dodge and evade everything we throw at them? Over."  
  
"That red head fights like an Elder, my sister, she's tricky and dangerous and Shampoo is learning from her even as we speak. Did you not see the different way she was moving during the battle? The way she watched us and her surroundings all at the same time, she has improved as well. Over."  
  
Pink nodded, they had been fighting Shampoo for years and knew each other's moves almost by rote. "We have to try something different the next time we attack them. Over."  
  
"Like what? Over."  
  
"Spore cloud? Over." Pink suggested.  
  
"Maybe, but they seem to have some kind of weird luck..." Link said, but stopped as she sensed something and rolled to her feet. "What's that? Over."  
  
"Huh?" Pink said and looked around. Other than a couple of the candles they had going, the room seemed to be empty. "I don't see anything. Over."  
  
"No, I can sense something watching us like old Master Blink used to do before she would ambush us and throw poison ivy powder at us. Over." Link said in a hiss.  
  
"You were always better at detecting that kind of thing, where is it? Over." Pink asked as the came to her feet and grabbed a small ball out of her shirt.  
  
"I'm not sure, it seems to be all around us for some reason." Link said as she grabbed her own ball. "Could it be those girls? Did they follow us here? Over."  
  
"No way, they couldn't have done that without me seeing them. Over." Pink said, she was starting to get worried now that she could sense something watching her as well.  
  
They watched the room around them for any kind of hint that somebody might be hiding in the shadows, but it seemed to be as empty as it normally was. That didn't seem to make them feel any better though and they slowly moved to stand beside each other, nervously moving the small balls around in their hands. For some reason they could also feel the change in the room around them, something had entered the abandoned place either before them or after they entered. Gulping in fear they decided that it would be a good idea to get out of there and find some place else to camp out just to be safe. Normally they would have fought for the room, but this wasn't something they could fight off like would have normal people breaking in. They could feel it as it seemed to move about them, moving around along just out of sight.  
  
"Is time to go. Over." Pink said.  
  
"Agreed sister, lets go. Over." Link said as they stood up carefully and inched their way towards the door of the a abandoned building, then they changed direction in an instant.  
  
Breaking into a run they headed right for a close by window, it lead out into the front yard of the abandoned building. They figured it would be easy enough jump through it without any problems, after all it was only glass and whatever was in the room with them seemed to be much more dangerous. They freeze up and skid to a halt as the sound of running water fills the room, like someone had flushed the toilet. Then they notice some water flowing along the edge of the floor and quickly climbing up the wall in a shimmering wave. Pink and Link blink and back away from thw window as it's completely covered in seconds, then some of the water seems to flow back out onto the floor and forms a pool. The pool rises up and takes human shape for a few seconds before solidifying into a solid form complete with gray clothing, breasts, and blonde hair.   
  
"Why hello there." The blonde says with an evil smirk. "You're not leaving so soon are you?"  
  
"..." Pink and Link say as they back away clutching at each other.  
  
"Well no matter, you two will do perfectly for my little plan and your already dangerous enough that I won't have to brain wash you or anything. You just need some guidance and the proper motivation and all will be perfect, then it will be time for my revenge."   
  
"I-I'm sorry, but we have our own revenge to take on someone, so we can't help you. Over." Link says with a cute grin.  
  
"Y-yeah. Over."   
  
"What's with this 'Over' crap and I don't care what you had plans to do, you are mine to do with as I please." She snapped.  
  
"&%#$ off! Over!" Pink yells as they throw the last of their special balls at the ground, near it's feet. The balls explode and send out a wave of colored smoke, like with Shampoo, the instant they mix together they spark and turn into a wave fire. The blast, unlike last time is going off inside a building and the thing is caught up in the fire instantly, it screams in shock at the sudden fire. As they turn to run they can just make out it's form within the fire as it tries to survive. Then it stops struggling and seems to shimmer for a second as the fire vanishes almost as quickly as it appeared and the blonde headed girl smirks as she stalks toward them with no apparent damage.  
  
"That wasn't very nice, but I will make sure that it is the last time you have a chance to pull it off. I was going to let you live and help me with my own plans, but you just pissed me off so say your prayers girls because you are both dead."   
  
Pink and Link clutched at each other and whimpered as she got closer and closer, her arm extending out and solidifying into a rather imposing looking sword of solidified water. She spun it around a couple of times in her hand to test it's balance as she smirked, liking this new form better and better with each passing moment. Then there was loud crashing sound as one of the windows, the same windows that she could have sworn she was blocking off to keep people from interfering in this attack and to keep things private, broke inward with a shower of shards as a body jumped through it and landed in a crouch. Turning to look at the new comer, she noticed that it was a woman, about thirty five or so with dark red hair, wearing what looked like a pair of kaki shorts, a t-shirt, a belt, and an oversized coat. The woman was also holding a wicked looking sword as she glanced around the place to see what was happening.  
  
"Who the hell are you and why are you interrupting me?"   
  
"I am Nodoka, Devil Hunter and Explorer and you are Evil! I will purge the world of your dark deeds and make sure you never cause harm to the innocent again!" Nodoka yelled with an evil grin, she loved that speech.  
  
She sweatdropped. "Well I haven't chosen a name for myself just yet so you will just have to call me nothing until I do." She said. That didn't sound right, but she shrugged it off, it wasn't like she was at full power right now anyway.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I haven't picked out a name yet, alright. I don't feel like Titus anymore and I sure as hell don't want anyone to call me Jedite or any other version of that word. I'll figure something out eventually, but if you insist on a name you call me...Hmm...how does Jade sound?" She asked pleasantly.  
  
She hadn't been in very many fights as an actual Devil Hunter, but Nodoka suspected that the demons were supposed to be more blood thirsty. They weren't supposed to be nice and civil as they threatened your life, so she shrugged and decided to see where this would go. If it had been some gun wielding bad guy she would have been in her element, playing with him until he was begging to be taken down. The few times she had gone up against a demon had been very stressful and dangerous, several people had been killed while she tried to deal with the situation. This girl in front of her was different though, Nodoka could feel it in he bones, she was using something other than demonic energy. That would mean this fight could go to either of them, demons and spirits could be hurt by her sword, but she could tell that this one wasn't in as much danger as regular monsters.   
  
"Jade will work, now, give up and let me put out of your misery as quickly as possible." Nodoka said.  
  
"You don't actually expect me to do that do you?" Jade asked in surprise as she twirled her sword around a little absently.  
  
"Not really, but I have to ask, it's one of those things." Nodoka said with a shrug, pretending to be a lot more confident than she really was.  
  
With a shrug as well, Jade gripped her sword, glared at Nodoka and ran forward with a scream of rage. Nodoka did the same and they met in the middle of the floor, swinging their swords as only two completely inept female sword fighters could. They ended up knocking each other's swords out of the others hands and looked down at their hands in shock. Jade sighed and wondered how she could have gotten so many of Jedite's memories and a bit of his magic, but none of his skills, life sucked sometimes. Titus had never used a sword either, she preferred to throw boiling balls of water at her opponents or massive amount of water, whichever was easiest to use at the moment. Cursing under her breath Jade walked over to pick up he sword and heard Nodoka moving around.  
  
Cha-Chink!  
  
"I should have just use this in the first place, but I had to try the sword first just to keep up appearances and such." She said to Jade's back. "It's magical to a degree, giving me quite a bit of skill whenever I go up against a real demon of some kind, you on the other hand aren't a demon, so nothing happened."  
  
"Huh?" Jade said as she turned around and had a strange looking pistle grip shotgun shoved in her face with an evilly smirking Nodoka at the other end as she pulled the trigger and blew Jade's head off in a massive spray of water. The rest of Jade's body followed suit a few seconds later, splashing to the ground as it failed to hold itself together. Nodoka, not being satisfied with that, aimed the gun at the ground and fired several more rounds into the large puddle of water on the floor and blowing giant holes through the wood itself. With a sword she sucked, with a real weapon she could take down criminals by the score. In an even more astonishing surprise, she was actually licensed to carry the things around because her family was one of the top five devil hunting families in Japan and were given special allowances. Luckily she wasn't the only member of her family to be a Devil Hunter, or things might have been a lot worse. It wasn't her fault that her training has suffered over the years as she went to school and searched for Ranma.   
  
Satisfied with her handy work she turned to look at the two girls she had saved and waved at them, but they finally fainted as this included waving the gun back and forth by accident as well. "Well I didn't expect that." She muttered as she quickly reloaded another ten shots of her special ammo and smirked. It was good to be a modern woman, she got to use up to date tools in her job and she just got so much satisfaction out of blowing a demon away with her shotgun as others did slicing them to pieces. Once that was done she looked around with little surprise to see that Jade was beginning to pull herself back together once more.  
  
"I thought so, she is so much more than she appears to be. I think this is going to be fun." She said and cocked the shot gun and aimed.  
  
**********  
  
The Scouts had arrived a few minutes ago, though they had been running a few minutes late because Moon had taken a wrong turn when she asked for directions from some guy camped out at the edges of Nerima. So they didn't know where the Youma was, neither did Ranma, who met the girls on top of the apartment complex and none of them were in the best of moods now. Ranma had just been returning from looking around when she spotted the girls landing on a nearby roof and hopped on over to talk to them. "How is everybody doing? " She asked nervously, recalling that she had to make up with the girls for her actions the day before.  
  
"Hi Ranma, where is this thing we have to fight?" Moon asked as they looked around.  
  
"I don't know, you should have seen or sensed him by now, but he vanished a little while ago and I can't find where he went." Ranma said.  
  
Mercury pulled out her computer and started to scan the area. "...there is nothing on the scans, are you sure this is where is was headed? Could it have changed directions?"  
  
"Changed directions? Sure, but it should be around her somewhere."   
  
"I don't sense anything either, but that might because Meatball Head here got us lost on the way here." Mars said as she glared at the cringing Moon. Then she spotted Shampoo and Perfume heading their way, roof hopping as easily as they all did. She kept her surprise to herself though, Ranma could do the same thing after all. "Who are they?"   
  
"Those are a couple my friends, they don't know about Starfire so I'm going to stay like this unless it's an emergency. I can still help out, I don't need to transform to do that." Ranma said.   
  
They nodded and waited for the girls to reach them before Ranma stepped forward, waved at them, and introduced them when they got there. "Shampoo, Perfume, these are some friends I called you here about." She said and waved her hand. "These are the Sailor Scouts, Moon, Mars, and Mercury. They are going to help us take this thing down before it hurts anyone."   
  
"What's with the to to short skirts and funny clothes?" Shampoo asked, only to have Perfume hit her across the back of the head.  
  
"You never pay attention to the news do you Shampoo?" She said. "These girls have been fighting those demons around the Jubaan distract for the last few months, they get mentioned on the news now and then. Usually for their ability to level whole buildings and destroy massive amounts of property during their battles while wearing short skirts and giving all kinds of panty shots."   
  
Shampoo nodded, she remembered seeing something like that a few days back and wanting to join in. "That to to good sign of powerful warrior, but why wear silly clothing to do job, has no protection to speak of."  
  
"Don't worry about it Shampoo, for some reason the clothing is actually stronger than it looks. I've even wondered about it at times, it just works, don't ask me how though." Ranma said with a shrug. "Did you find anyplace where we might be able to fight this thing or even see it?"  
  
"There is a small clearing a few blocks that way, but it's not a park like what we were looking for so I don't know if it will work for what you want or not." Perfume said as Shampoo stepped forward and started to study Sailor Moon's skirt, lifting it up to get a better look. Rubbing it between her fingers and testing its strength.  
  
"Um..." Moon said as her bottom was shown to the world, she sweatdropped and glanced at Ranma.  
  
"Where was this place?" Mars asked as she stepped up beside Ranma, distracting her when Moon was looking for help, and ignored the little glance Perfume gave Ranma to see if it was alright if they talked. Trust had to be earned after all, she could understand that.  
  
"Ranma..." Moon tried again as Shampoo started to examine other areas of the fuku, looking for something. Moon squirmed as the girl's hands went everywhere at once, touching places that shouldn't have been touched by a total stranger.  
  
"Several blocks that way, it's more of an over grown garden behind this run down house than a park though. It didn't look like what you wanted though." Perfume said as she watched Shampoo's curiosity get the better of her.  
  
"Let's go and check it out while Moon and Mercury try to find the Youma." Ranma said as they jumped to the roof of the next building and headed over to check on this run down house.   
  
"EeeeeeeeP!" Moon said and slapped Shampoo's hands away from the breasts.  
  
"Where opening, see no way to take off." Shampoo said as Moon blushed.  
  
"Huh?" Moon asked in shock, thinking Shampoo might have been on of 'those' perverts.  
  
"How get weird clothes on?"   
  
"You pervert!"   
  
Shampoo blinked as she pulled out a Japanese to Chinese dictionary and looked up the odd word.   
  
Mercury tried to ignore Moon as she wrote up a program to look for that Youma, she had noticed earlier that they had been able to track it easily enough. It had shown up as a Youma even with it's odd energy signature, but now it had vanished and she was using those earlier traces to write a program that could track it. She wasn't sure, but she was beginning to think that it's energy had gotten so low that the computer couldn't track it any more. That meant that it was either dead or so weak that it couldn't even beat a normal human in a regular fight anymore. Or would have to work at it anyway and they were in Nerima, the place was infamous for it's super powered martial artists.   
  
If it was low on power, then most of them should have been able to take this thing down. She had never heard of a Youma this weak though, why would the Dark Kingdom have sent it here if it wasn't strong enough to defeat the locals? Frowning she continued to write the program, it was a little more difficult than she had thought, luckily the Mercury computer made making these programs very simple. The little thing never failed to surprise her, it was small, had a thousand times the memory of a reguar computer, and access to information that was simply increadible. Even after all these months of working with it she had yet access even a thousandth of it's abilities. It even had remote accessing programs that allowed it to tap into the local internet or other computers and scan through their memories without tripping their security measures or anything.  
  
She watched the little map in the corner as it tracked Ranma, her friend Perfume, and Mars as they headed for that lot that was mentioned. It was even scanning Moon and Shampoo as they moved around on the roof beside her. With a final click of a key she finished her program and activated it. The map in the corner expanded out a little as it picked up a very faint signal about a mile away from her current location, a close look at the map showed it to be inside some kind of building. There was also three locals in there, two of them appeared to be staying very still, as if they had been drained and a third target that was weaving around the faint signal.   
  
**********  
  
They arrived at the lot a few minutes later and Ranma was a bit skeptical that it would work for their plans as well. It was surrounded by trees, but as they jumped the crumbling wall and they landed inside it was obvious that the place hadn't been used in years. That in itself was a big surprise, why would anyone own such a place and not use it? As they moved through the trees she sent her senses ahead of her to 'feel' the grounds for anything that might have been out of place, but as far as she could tell the place was just what it appeared to be, completely abandoned. There was a small single story house buried among the trees off to the left, sealed up and ready to used at a moments notice. Though as she wandered around the back yard she noticed that the place was like a large over grown garden that hadn't been trimmed in years and had taken over everything around it. She moved carefully through the trees and found an old stone path of some kind, there was an ivy covered old stone bench that was half buried in flowers and grass.   
  
Tree's were everywhere and made her wonder if they did use this place for the fight just what kind of maneuverability they would have. The girls were still novices at fighting in close and she didn't know if they could take this thing down without hitting each other with their own attacks and dodging the trees at the same time. Though taking cover behind a tree would be easy enough, she thought as she stepped past the over grown bench and looked into the next section and blinked. It was a large open yard, there was only one tree here and it rose up into the sky and seemed to take up most of the area. There was over grown walks all around it, but the treed itself had to be six foot across at least and nearly sixty or seventy feet high. Even more amazing was that the tree didn't really stand out among the other trees from the outside, she hadn't noticed it on the way here either. This was just what she wanted and she considered it a bonus that it was within an enclosed area like this.  
  
"It's perfect." Ranma said.  
  
"I think so too, though my powers will be next to useless in here." Mars said as she entered the area from the other side.  
  
"We didn't get this far into the yard the last we were here." Perfume said as she walked up behind Ranma and looked around.   
  
"Mars, is there something odd about that tree or is it just me?" Ranma asked as she pointed at the large one in front of them.  
  
"This used to be a shrine, that tree would have been considered sacred in some way and I can sense something different about it as well. As is if it was more than it seemed..." Mars said as she walked forward and touched it's bark carefully.  
  
Beep, beep.  
  
Mars stopped and glanced at Ranma as she pulled out her communicator. "Mars here."  
  
"Mars, Mercury has found the Youma. It's about a mile from where we are right now, but it seems to be really weak." Moon said.  
  
"Where?" Ranma asked as she walked over.  
  
"An old building of some kind, were not sure though, it seems to be inside with three other people. Two of those haven't moved in the last few minutes." Mercury said and relayed the address to Mars.  
  
"We're on our way, we have to lead it back here to take it down." Mars said.  
  
"It's to far away." Mercury said as she ran. "We can take it out where it is so long as we get those three civilians out of there."  
  
"Let's go." Mars said as she ran for the nearest wall.  
  
Looking around the area Ranma decided that there was something about this place that needed looking into when this was over with. She took off after Mars, Perfume had followed after her, so Ranma had to do some catching up. Channeling some Ki to her legs as she ran and quickly doubling her speed as she leaned forward to go even faster. Within seconds she was at the wall and jumping to a nearby roof top using her ability to see in the dark to her advantage and catching up with everybody else. So it only took them about three minutes to reach the building the Mercury had found, she was standing out front running one last scan as everybody arrived. They heard a gun go off inside the building, a sound that only Ranma, Shampoo, and Perfume had ever heard before.  
  
"That was a gun." Ranma said.  
  
The Scouts blinked in surprise and hesitated to go in with that thing in there, they were resistant to magic attacks, bullets were a whole different kettle of fish. Mercury finished her scan and put her computer away. "All entrances to the building, except one, are sealed somehow and would take us several minutes to get through. There is a window on the other side of the building that has been shattered, it's wide open and will be the easiest way for us to get inside."  
  
Moon stepped forward and glanced nervously at Ranma. "Ranma, I want you and your friends to help out those civilians as we take out that Youma. Alright?"   
  
Frowning, Ranma decided that she would stay out of this to keep her identity and the others secret. "Sure, We'll be your back up though."   
  
"That will work." Mercury said and motioned for Moon and Mars to follow her as they jumped to the roof and made their way around to the back window.  
  
Shampoo and Perfume glanced in surprise at Ranma as she stood there for a few seconds. "That's long enough, let's get those innocents out of there and join the fight."   
  
They grinned and nodded.  
  
**********  
  
Duck, weave, and throw. Jade followed that pattern as she threw her fist out and sent a ball of hot water at the annoying nat in front of her. They were dodged and Jade sighed as the butt of the shotgun was shoved into her gut, brought back and slammed into her chin to send her stumbling back. She would have desolidified, but that was when Nodoka would reverse the gun and blast her in half with a smirk. Jade stumbled to a stop and shook her head, her energy levels were running almost empty and she hadn't been able to get over to those girls to get a recharge and a couple of attempts to drain Nodoka had proven to be impossible. That gun was to swift on the draw and to distracting to ignore as she tried to drain the woman. She sighed as she created another ball of hot water and tried to focus.  
  
Nodoka on the other hand was just smirking as she dodged and rolled around the room taking pot shots at the odd creature in front of her. She could sense that the thing was growing weaker, it had already slowed down to normal human levels and was having problems holding it's form. It looked like Odo did during one of those Star Trek DS9 episodes she had seen a few years ago when he had stayed in one form for to long. The skin was turning watery and dripping on the floor as it moved, though the power of those projectiles was just as strong as ever. Running forward she fainted to the left, faked it out, and jumped straight up using her Devil Hunter agility to get above it, aimed her shot gun and blew it's chest out of it's body.   
  
Surprisingly it only stumbled back as it came out of it's back and left a gapping hole that she could see through. Staggering forward Jade growled as her vision wavered and saw the last thing she wanted to see in this situation, Sailor Scouts jumping through the window. There were only three of them, but in her current condition she couldn't have hurt them if she wanted to, she was so screwed, screwed beyond belief. She had to get out of there, collapsing into a large puddle she spread out across the floor and entered the open ground where all the plants were growing from the floor. It happened so fast that there was nothing any of them could do before she was gone.  
  
"&%#$!!" Nodoka yelled.   
  
"She's getting away! Mercury, where did she go?" Mars yelled as she looked at the odd little garden.  
  
"She left to much of herself here in the room, that's all I can read and it's going to turn to normal water here pretty soon." Mercury said as she scanned the room.  
  
Ranma, Perfume, and Shampoo all entered the room and looked around in surprise to see that the fight was already over. They sighed in disappointment, though Ranma notice the older red headed woman standing off to the side reloading a shot gun of all things and frowned a little. She didn't know what to think of the woman, she could sense a bit of power in her though. It was a bit unfocused so Ranma wasn't sure if she actually knew how to use it or not, from the looks of the shotgun she did know how to defend herself though so there wasn't much of anything to say. Ignoring the woman, Ranma glanced across the room and saw Pink and Link sprawled out on the floor and smirked, dismissing the red headed lady as she focused on someone she did know.   
  
"Look who we have here." She said with an evil smirk.  
  
Everyone turned to look as Ranma walked over to the twins and kneeled down. "What should we do with them Shampoo, they are your enemies."   
  
"Stomp on them, they is just annoying girls." Shampoo said with a sniff.  
  
"I don't care, they are a pain in the ass." Perfume muttered as she fingered her sword and glared at the girls.  
  
"You won't hurt them!" Nodoka snapped as she stalked forward and glared at the three girls that weren't in fuku. She hadn't expected to meet up with the Sailor Scouts this early, but she wasn't about as something like this happen.   
  
"I don't care what happens to them, but they were trying kill us earlier tonight and I don't want to deal with that kind of crap again and if that means kicking their ass now, so be it." Ranma said as she stood up, glancing at the girls at her feet.  
  
"Stomp on them hundred time each, take out for rest of week." Shampoo said again.  
  
"I'll go along with Ranma on this one, they are a pain, but if they leave me alone I'll leave them alone." Perfume said.  
  
"What's going on?" Moon asked as the others stepped over to see what had everybody so mad at each other.  
  
Shrugging, Ranma pointed at the two girls on the floor. "These two were trying to kill me, Shampoo, and Perfume earlier today before that Youma showed up. We were looking for them when we stumbled across this Youma and had to deal with it first, I never expected to find them mixed up in this though."   
  
"What about you?" Moon asked Nodoka, who was clutching her shotgun and looking from girl to girl.  
  
"I thought it was a demon and came to slay it, but it turned out to be something else that was immune to my devil hunting sword." She said as she walked over to pick it up, with a thought it started to glow and vanished from sight.  
  
"What do we do now that the monster is gone?" Perfume asked and looked around.  
  
"There is nothing more we can do, but it is weak enough that it won't be bothering anyone for a few days at least, possible a few weeks if it goes into hiding." Mercury said.  
  
Shampoo nodded and ignored everyone else as she knelt down and lifted Pink and Link up by their armor and slammed them up against the wall. "Quit faking nap, you breathing change."   
  
Ranma smirked a little more and nodded, she had been wondering when someone else would notice.  
  
"Hello Shampoo. Over." Pink and Link said in unison as they opened their eyes at the same time and frowned at their enemy.  
  
"Shampoo tired of dealing with girls, leave alone or else." She said, slamming them against the wall with every world.  
  
"There's no need to be so violent." Nodoka said with a disapproving frown at the Chinese girl.  
  
"They are giant pain in Shampoo's ass." Perfume said.  
  
"Well were done here, so were going to take off." Moon said with a wave and a grin as they walked out, they had to get back to Jubaan as quickly as they could and Ranma could deal with the rest of this on her own. Ranma waved back and indicated that they would talk to again tomorrow as they left, then turned back as she heard a snarl. It seemed Shampoo had pulled her sword after dropping the twins and was being held in check by Perfume as Nodoka stepped between them and raised her gun.   
  
"Don't even try it." Nodoka snapped. "They are leaving here with me, they seem to need some help anyway and since you won't do it I will have to."   
  
Smirking at Shampoo, they followed along behind Nodoka as they inched their way out of the room. They stuck their tongues out at Shampoo and gave her the red eye before they vanished around the corner though, where Nodoka couldn't see their actions. Nodoka stopped for a second and glanced back at Ranma for a second before she left, something was telling her to talk to the red head, but she had to take care of this first. She also knew that the girl wouldn't be here if she returned so she shrugged it off and decided to worry about it later. They left the house a few minutes later, to her surprise Pink and Link actually stayed with her as they walked back to her place. Maybe the girls needed a friend or a good meal, she would have to wait and see.  
  
Back with Ranma, she was smirking again as Shampoo pouted a little. "Well that wraps that up, those two should be occupied for a while if they stay with the old woman."  
  
"She seemed to know you Ranma, those weren't just casual glances she was giving you." Perfume said.  
  
"I don't know from where." Ranma said and shrugged.  
  
"We should have stomped on them." Shampoo muttered from nearby.  
  
Ranma chuckled as they walked out. "So what now?"  
  
"I'm a little hungry." Perfume said, she couldn't remember the last time she had a decent meal.   
  
"Sounds good to me. Any idea where you want to go?"  
  
"Sure, but we need to go back the clinic first." Ranma said. "I left my pack there along with my cat. Can't go out to eat without either of those."  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - This took a lot longer to get out than I had thought it would, but it's quite a bit bigger than normal and takes things in a new direction while keeping to the basic Sailor Moon story line. This chapter was more original work than normal though and allowed me to have a bit of fun with the characters and expand the plot a bit.   
  
*Sanjouin Masato is from this link http://www.tcp.com/doi/smoon/episodes/sm014.html 


	11. Chapter 09

Notes - Well it's been forever and a day, but the next chapter is here. Thanks to all my prereaders and and everyone that offered me a bit of advice on this chapter to help round it out and get it finished.  
  
**********  
  
Princess of the Moon  
  
Chapter 09 - Usagi and Tennis Equal, What?  
  
By Cory D. Rose  
  
ertle2@msn.com  
  
(c)2002  
  
**********  
  
Jumping the wall that surrounded the abandoned house where she had decided to spend the night in a graceful hop, Ranma landed on the grass and headed into the trees around her. The sun had gone down some hours ago, but she still smiled to herself as this was the first she had time to relax in several weeks. The last week had been one long battle or the anticipation of battle and it had been wearing on her nerves, making her broody and mean to everyone around her. At the moment she didn't really want to think about the argument she had gotten into with Ami just the day before or the fight that had brought certain people back into her life. Instead the thoughts were just flying through her mind faster than she could suppress them. People like her best friends Shampoo and Perfume who had helped her out when she had needed it the most. Or her parents, who she still didn't want to deal with. She remembered that contract she had found stored in her father's pack and what it had represented, how could she trust anyone that would willingly do that to her. Then that strange web site that her mother had supposedly set up to find her, Ami had found it for her that one day at the library. Even after a few weeks she still wasn't sure which version of her mother she could trust.   
  
The web site suggested that she was an unwilling victim of her father's schemes and was the version that Ranma wanted to believe, and yet when she had seen the woman for the first there had been something about her that didn't seem right. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that the woman had barely glanced at her, the fact that she had been taking Pink and Link's side of things, or something else she wasn't fully aware of yet. Ranma shook her head, her mother was a total mystery to her at the moment and the more she thought about the woman the more she wanted to find out the truth and now that she thought about it there wasn't really anything keeping her from going to see her. She hadn't completely given up the Saotome name even if she was currently using Mazaki to make her life a little easier. For it to stick she would have to be removed form the family register and no one in their right minds would believe that anyone that looked like her was actually a man. There was no way that would work and she kind of doubted that the old man or his mother would do it for her. It would take some time, but she would track the woman's house down and have a little talk with her to find out the full truth, that web site was enough to make her doubt herself. When she was ready to meet her of course, at the moment she needed to get her life in order and find her center again. Then there was her father, the idiot panda, the moron, and living embodiment of stubbornness that refused to accept responsibility for what he had done to her.  
  
It had been his idea to go to that region of China and find those springs and see what the legendary training ground was all about. Ranma hated being a girl, everything about it just felt wrong and whenever she tried to act like the man it was like things seemed to spiral out of her control and kind of wondered if falling in that spring might have had more than one curse attached to it. People started treating her with disrespect if she tried to exert her male personality and called her a tomboy and laughed as if her opinion on the matter didn't matter in the least. Sure in the last several months she had made some friends, more than she had in her life, but a portion of her soul tried to keep them at bay because they didn't quite fit in roll she wanted them to. The biggest bombshell had been the powers she gained whenever she transformed into Starfire, or Sailor sun. When she was transformed she felt whole and complete as if nothing in the world was wrong and it scared her to the farthest depths of her soul to feel that way.   
  
She had tried to fit in with the rest of the Scouts when that talking cat had given her the key to her powers and even helped them out in their fights. The fights with Jedite had been a lot of fun and helped get her mind off the fact that 'he' was now a girl and it was currently impossible to change back. At least she had kept most of her height, though the sudden lengthening of her hair to a longer than normal length had taken a few weeks to get used to. The extra hair had weighed just enough to throw off her balance when she wasn't paying attention and had cost her a fight or two during the early months of her wanderings. She had came within an inch of cutting if off at one point before she decided that it would be like admitting defeat to do that and learned to live with it.  
  
The cursed springs transformation had almost driven her insane when she fully realized what had happened and her old man had come within an inch of dieing at her hands. Abandoning the jerk and wandering around China for all that time had been both good and bad for her. Ranma sighed and shook her head, during those months she had tried to find a cure, but few people even believed in magic and those that did had no clue what a Jusenkyo curse was or how to cure something like it. More than anything in the world Ranma wanted to become a man again, to have that feeling of confident strength flowing through 'his' body once more, to be able to accept what society wanted from him and not be forced into a subservient role that demanded that she submit to the dominance of a man. Such bullshit like that wasn't as bad these days as it had been and he had been exposed to things during her wanderings, but there were times that she had to physically restrain herself from breaking some guy's jaw.   
  
She hadn't bothered to tell Nabiki and Rei that her trip to the Amazon village had been because she wanted to die. What purpose would it have meant to tell them that? She had known that was where her father was of course, but with his views on things she had not clue how he would react if she went to him. Instead she had been planning to beat up some of the locals and see about getting a Kiss of Death from one or more of them. More than one village had mentioned them and their odd laws, warning her away from the insane woman who thought they could rule the world if they only had larger numbers. The fight had been quite a surprise for her, those girls had been *good*, far better than she had thought they could ever be, but in the end she had humiliated several of them according to plan. They had gotten up and given her the Kiss of Death and changed their tactics from defend and drive off to lethal attacks that didn't' require fancy jumps or dodges. They went right for the quickest kill and for a second Ranma had considered just holding her arms wide and letting them do just that, but a small burst of pride had forced her, at the very last second, to take them on and show them what she could do when motivated enough.  
  
It told her to fight them with everything she had and to die with the tiny bit of honor she had left. Ranma had to grin at the memory, the hatred that had been in their eyes as they attacked had instantly changed into respect as she held her ground and formed a basic Ki aura round her to fuel her attacks. The old man had only taught her some of the basics of increasing her speed and strength the last time they had been Tokyo and spent a couple months using an abandoned apartment, but it had been enough to weave and dodge through the girls. Something within her would not just give up no matter how screwed up her life was and in that instant she decided that she didn't want to die at their hands, she had better things to do. She would show them that even a weakling could take down the vaunted skill of the Amazons that had turned the villages around them into cowards.   
  
Ten seconds into this fight and she barely noticed that it had acquired a sizable crowd of onlookers. With precise blows she shattered swords and sent girls flying into trees with Ki charged blows, though they went down they refused to just give up and instantly entered the fight once more. She had decided that a change of tactics was in order and took the fight to the air. Amazon Wu Shu is a powerful ground attack martial art, but it had certain weaknesses while in air just like a lot of other fighting styles and the Saotome art took advantage of this with ease. Within seconds she had two of them landing on the ground unconscious, killing went against her code even if the these girls had no such problems. Twenty minutes later it was over and she found herself standing in the middle of the village with a pile of unconscious girls on the ground all around her.  
  
That had been an exhilarating fight and she stood there panting for breath as she watched the girls to make sure were indeed out cold. Then she had spotted some movement from the crowd and saw several old women heading towards her. Even from this distance she could feel just how strong they were, which came as another surprise since she had rarely ever met anyone that was still a strong fighter past a certain age. As they approached the oldest looking one was balanced on a tall stick and bouncing forward like it was a pogo stick. They checked the girls over and seemed surprised to find that all of them were alive and gave her odd looks, as if measuring her worth. With a high hop the one on the stick landed in front of her and Ranma moved into a defensive stance, she knew there was no way she could defeat all of them.  
  
"I'll take you on too." Ranma gasped out, she was tired, but knew she could take some of these old women down if she had to.  
  
"So you speak Japanese girl, that's unexpected but at least we can talk to each other. I'm quite impressed with what you did here, there are few that can take on so many and survive the Kiss of Death."   
  
Ranma had to smirk. "I am the best."  
  
The old woman cackled. "I'll bet you believe you are. Well girl you have a choice to make."  
  
"What kind of choice?"  
  
"You can run for your life or you can accept the second half of the our Kiss of Death law."  
  
"The second half?" Ranma asked warily. "What is that?"  
  
"I can't tell you, make a decision right now."  
  
Ranma remembered that she had considered running and shook her head, that would have been the worse thing she could have done. The whole village had surrounded her by that time and getting out would have been impossible. So she had chosen to stick it out and fight to the end and take as many of them with her as she could, which turned out to be the right thing to do.   
  
"I accept the law then, bring it on, I'll show you what a real fighter can accomplish." She muttered and prepared to give it her all when they attacked her. She nearly wet herself when the whole village let off this bone chilling war cry and started chanting something in Chinese. The wind could have knocked her over with little effort at that exact moment.  
  
The old woman cackled. "Well said girl, well said, they greet you as an equal and potential member of the tribe. You have shown that you have great skill, that you honor your opponents lives by not killing them, and your courage by standing your ground in the face of total destruction. You are now released from the Kiss of Death and offered a place within our village. I am Elder Cologne."  
  
Shampoo, who had been watching from the crowd had told her later that she'd had the funniest look on her face when she realized that she wasn't going to be killed right then and there. Ranma remembered being teased about it for days on end, but that first night had been a giant party, complete with a feast and many congratulations for her accomplishment. Later on she had explained to the Elders why she had been there and what for when they dragged the truth from her with sneaky questions. They had been kind of shocked at first, but quickly changed their minds when they found out about Jusenkyo and what it had done to her. They had decided to keep her around as an ally since she intended to get her manhood back and had Cologne teach her some of their art and special attacks. The biggest thing she had learned though was that if she gave up there would never be a cure for her curse so she had thrown herself into the training during her short stay. That old woman's training had brought out more of her skill than her old man ever had, she still hadn't mastered more than a couple of techniques when she felt this desire to go back home. One thing that Cologne had refused to teach her was a Ki attack, those were things that only full members of the tribe could learn. So instead she had learned some new ways to focus her Ki and how to speed herself up quite a bit and a couple of other things like how to project her voice with her Ki. One area that Cologne hadn't been all that helpful with was the curse, they had a few ideas how it had been locked, but no real way to prove it without certain items they didn't have.  
  
She was pretty sure that it was the magic inside her pulling her to come and take up her position as Starfire, but still wasn't sure. Things had progressed from there, to when she met up with the scouts, to school and when she changed her name to Mazaki. Now that old man Hino had kicked her out of the shrine she had to find a place to live and a part of her didn't want to end up living in a tent at the side of the road. Her pride wouldn't let her ask the other Scouts for help so she had to find some other solution. For now she was satisfied to stay here in this abandoned yard and plan her next move and get some needed rest without Rei constantly harping on her about things.  
  
Now that she had a chance to relax a little she was feeling a lot better and the world didn't look so bad as it had just a few hours ago. She had even had time to think about what she was going to do next, with her friends here she had some options that weren't available before and she wanted to take advantage of them. The biggest thing was to make up with the Scouts, she had been pretty mean to them and they didn't deserve that. They were a couple of years younger than she was after all, barely even teenagers and they didn't have the experience that she did. Well except for Ami, she acted like she was far older than she looked at times.  
  
After all that fighting and her own doubts about this situation she had fallen into a rather bad attitude that her father would have called 'the useless actions of a weak willed woman' and let her emotions control all her actions. After all these months she had come to understand that her negative emotions were causing most of these problems and had to use her iron hard will power to focus past the dark thoughts in her head and move on with what she had to do. She needed this break more than ever before. Now that she had accepted things, just a little, she knew that another change was needed to get her mental and physical balance back, that had been nearly completely destroyed by Jusenkyo. With Shampoo and Perfume here she would be able to do that once and for all and complete some training she had been forced to skip over when she left the village. They understood what was going on with her since she had long ago explained what Jusenkyo did to her, though it didn't stop them from teasing her all the time.   
  
She had her secrets sure, but the only one of the Scouts that knew anything was Rei and she hadn't told the others what she knew. Deep in her heart Ranma knew that she was going to have to tell the others the truth one of these days. The longer she waited the easier it became to keep it secret, she had a feeling that if she didn't tell them, they would find out on their own eventually, and things would go from bad to worse in quick order. Still, this didn't feel like the right time to tell them, they needed a little more time to come to terms with her as a person before she started telling them secrets. A few days on their own without her around would do them a lot of good, a chance to relax and have a little fun among themselves. It wouldn't last to long, but that didn't matter so long as they were having a good time. That kind of thinking was why was just returning from her little trip after the fight with that odd Youma. She had told Shampoo and Perfume to return to that huge tree they had found earlier and wait for her to go and get them some food.  
  
It hadn't taken to long to get everything she needed, that was why she was holding two large bags of fast food in one hand and had her pack strapped to her back as she walked along, thought to herself, and wound down from the fight. Getting the pack back from Tofu had only taken a few seconds and after a short run over the roofs she had managed to find just the right kind of place to eat. On the way back she had started to think about that house again, there was just something about the place that seemed to draw her in and she wanted to find out what it was. She had never been there before as far as she could tell and yet it felt familiar to her, the house stirred some long forgotten memory in her head. The large tree made her think of more peaceful times from when she was just a little boy running around and playing among the trees.  
  
How that was possible she had no idea, but hopefully she could find out what she needed to know by searching the area and exploring among the garden, but right now she wanted to eat something. She moved out of the trees at a slow walk and onto the path that led to the center of the garden where the huge tree was situated, over looking the whole city from it's upper branches like some kind of protective guardian. She grinned as she realized that her strange new night vision was till working perfectly, giving her a kind of low light vision that allowed her to see perfectly even among the darkest shadows cast off by the trees. A little ways ahead she could see the fire that Perfume and Shampoo had started while she was gone. For some reason it just looked out of place with things, but Ranma knew it was pretty late and that most people couldn't see in the dark like she could.   
  
The girls looked up as she walked toward them, shrugged of the large pack and held up the bags of food even as she was sitting down in front of the fire. "I managed to get us some food, though I had to pay a little extra to get it this late at night."  
  
"That's fine Ranma, what did you get?" Perfume asked as she leaned forward.  
  
"Some hamburgers, french fries, and ice cream Sundays for desert." Ranma said as she handed each of them two hamburgers, a bag of fries, and a large Sunday.  
  
"What this?" Shampoo asked as she eyed the food like it was going to attack her at any moment.  
  
"It's food."  
  
"It look like charred meat on low class bread with bits of blood, yellow stuff, and...a slice of cucumber?" She said as she used a nail to lift up a pickle and frown at it cutely.  
  
"This is warriors food Shampoo, it tests your nerves and stomach to eat it." Perfume said with a smirk as she started to eat her hamburger with a few fries with the determination of someone that had eaten them before and knew what they were. "We don't get a chance to eat things like this back home at the village Shampoo. Live a little."   
  
"Shampoo rather live." She dead panned with a wary look at Ranma.  
  
Ranma had just shrugged, scarfed her food in a matter of seconds and moved on to the ice cream with a look of pleasure on her face. She ate this slow, enjoying every little bite she could. "Eat up Shampoo, it won't hurt you and it's actually pretty good and I know you will like the ice cream. You have to eat it before it melts though, so hurry up. See, Perfume is already ahead of you."   
  
Perfume ignored Ranma as she tried to lick her ice cream bowl clean of every drop, it had been several years since she last had the stuff.   
  
Giving the odd thing in her hand an experimental bite, Shampoo found that it wasn't bad and ate it in a rapid pace. She took one bite of the fries and tossed them in the fire though, muttering about poison foods as she picked up her own ice cream and took a little bite, blinked in surprise, tried another bite and grinned as she all but swooned with pleasure. Grinning she copied Ranma's actions with the ice cream, making it last several minutes by savoring every last drop of the stuff. Perfume just looked down at her empty cup and sighed, she wanted more ice cream and didn't have any money to go and get some. With a sigh she stood up and pulled her camping gear our of stuff space and rolled the sleeping bag out as she laid back.   
  
"So what do you think?" Ranma asked Shampoo.  
  
"Shampoo like white cream." She said with a grin and licked her spoon happily.  
  
"I've never met anyone that didn't like ice cream." Ranma said with a grin and licked her own spoon clean.  
  
"So why did you want to come back here Ranma?" Perfume asked from her back, propping herself up on one elbow.  
  
"I'm not sure, there's something about this place that makes me want to look around and see what there is to offer. Mars said it used to be a shrine so that might be part of what I'm feeling, but I've never felt anything like this before and want to find out why." Ranma said with a shrug.  
  
"It feels normal to me Ranma, this place is an over grown wreck that just needs to be cleaned up a bit. Even that run down house over there is in serious need of some repairs along the roof and porch area. It would take a few weeks to get it into anything we could use to live in, right now I'd be afraid to go inside, the roof would probably fall on us."  
  
Shampoo licked her bowl clean and sighed happily and completely ignored the conversation going on around her. She wanted more ice cream figured Ranma would have gotten more for herself and hidden it away somewhere, so she grabbed Ranma's pack and started to look inside it for more of the stuff while Ranma was talking to Perfume. Humming happily she started to unpack the things to see if there as any hidden at the bottom, setting various things to the side in her search. Black pants, shirts of various designs and colors and other odds and ends. Ito didn't even stir from her nap when Shampoo pulled her out, she just purred a little and curled into a tighter ball as she slept. Not to be deterred, Shampoo forged on in her quest to find what she was looking for when she found something weird and pulled it out to hold the little package up to the fire light.  
  
"I can't really describe it really, the closest I can get is that this place makes me feel like the heavy load of responsibility I have on my shoulders isn't there anymore. There has to be a reason for it around here somewhere, but for now it also makes a good place to camp out without being bothered by the local police." Ranma said, remembering a time before this curse happened, when he and the old man had spent a month living in a mansion. The old fool had stripped the place bare of everything valuable by third week and made a small fortune at the local pawn shops, he had been hiding from the police too. Though they had been after Genma at the time, at least this time she wouldn't have to sneak around all the time just to get out of the area.  
  
"Oh that, I hadn't really noticed, but now that you mention it I do feel a little better for some reason. As if I didn't have to worry about the constant danger we're in from Pink and Link being on the loose." Perfume said as she glanced at Shampoo and blinked.  
  
"I'm not sure what to think of those two, but they went home with that woman so they should be out of your hair for a while at least." Ranma said.  
  
"They tricky, we should have just stomped on them and knock out old woman for interfering in woman to woman fight." Shampoo grumped, taking a second to open the colorful little package and tossing the plastic in the fire to melt.  
  
"Oh get off this stomping thing Shampoo, it's getting old and those two need to be dealt with before they accidentally cause any major harm to any of us." Perfume said, wondering what had caught Shampoo's attention. She was like a cat, constantly distracted by the littlest things and playing with it until she broke it in some way.  
  
"Humph! Shampoo try talk, they never listen anyway." She said as she crossed her arms and looked way with a sniff, waving the colorful little pieces of cloth in her hands trying to figure out what they were. They had little pictures on them and looked like some kind of clothing, but she had never seen anything quite like them in the village.  
  
"Well you can go out and look for them Shampoo, I'm going to get a few hours of sleep. They wore me out and I need to catch up on what little sleep I've been able to catch over the last couple of weeks." Perfume said. "What the hell are you playing with now?"   
  
"No know, found in Ranma pack." Shampoo said.  
  
Ranma looked over and noticed that her pack had been unpacked and all her stuff was on the ground. Then she saw what Shampoo was waving about, stretching and folding in her hands and blushed. "Shampoo stop playing with your panties!"  
  
"Pan...ties? What that?"  
  
"Your underwear! Stop that right now!" Ranma gasped, turning even more red.  
  
"They no mine." Shampoo said and tossed them on Ranma's head. "They in your pack, they belong to you."   
  
"WHAT!!!" Ranma screeched and started grabbing the things in shock.  
  
"Panties?! Ranma, since when do you wear girls underwear?!" Perfume gasped and started laughing. "You were rumored to be the only girl in the Village that refused to wear the normal clothing among the other girls, you were famous for it. When did you change your mind? What are you wearing now?" Perfume gasped out between cackles.  
  
"I DON'T wear things like this!" Ranma yelled, as she turned red and thought 'Unless she was forced to like with that school uniform and even those were as plane as she could make them'. She could see two other packs of the things sitting in among her clothes with things like Hello Kitty written on the outside of the packages. Perfume grabbed one of the flimsy things out of Ranma's hand and held it up to the fire with a wide grin.  
  
"These are so cute! Look at these little kittens playing all over the back side! What will they come up with next!?" She gasped and giggled a little more.  
  
"Shampoo have no idea what talking about." Shampoo muttered darkly as reached the bottom of Ranma's pack and found all the weights, but no ice cream, her quest for more had proven futile and she sighed in defeat. So she put everything back and gave it back to Ranma and pulled her sleeping bag out of nowhere. Tossed it on the ground and stripped her dress off to reveal that she didn't like to wear undergarments of any kind, and crawled in. "Shampoo want more ice cream."  
  
"Shampoo you slut, I told you not to do that while we were here. You've already given one old man an eyeful when you used that tree in his back yard for a bed!" Perfume yelled.  
  
"Shampoo always sleep like this! It save clothes from wear out..."  
  
"You're a slut and you know it!" Perfume shot back with a smirk.  
  
"You take back!" Shampoo yelled and jumped to her feet with all parts jiggling. "Shampoo no know what slut is, but know insult when she hear one!"  
  
Ranma's jaw hit the ground and she twitched as her eyes automatically tracked every little movement of the naked girl in front of her.  
  
Jiggle, jiggle.  
  
"Hah! You tramp, I'll show you how it's done!" Perfume yelled back as she jumped out of her sleeping bag and ripped her clothing off as well and showed off her...talents.   
  
Blood exploded out of Ranma's nose as she experienced hormonal overload from seeing two naked girls right in front of her. She fell over and twitched a little as they grabbed up pillows and started hitting each other with loud shrieks that only girls could do. She shuddered as she lay there, paralyzed by the sight, the next few days were going to be really interesting if Shampoo did that every night, she thought to herself.  
  
Twitch...gurgle...faint!  
  
Shampoo and Perfume stopped after one last pillow shot and smirked at Ranma, the whole village knew that Ranma was a man in a woman's body do to Jusenkyo. It had become a game among the girls to see who could make her faint the fastest. Imagine their surprise when something so simple as being naked could have such a dramatic effect on the boy turned girl? They had giggled about it for hours before implementing a teasing campaign against her, popping up at oddest times and showing off their nakedness to stun the girl at the most convenient times, then it was time to move onto phase two. They giggled evilly as they moved towards Ranma with one goal in mind, even after all this time Ranma still hadn't figured out that they did it on purpose.  
  
"What now?" Shampoo asked as she took off Ranma's clothing and held up a pair of ragged looking boxers with a frown.  
  
"What we always do of course." Perfume said with a cackle as the tossed the offending garment in the fire with a shudder.  
  
"We no have usual items."  
  
"Then we will have to improvise a little, but first we need to clean her up and prep her, the girl doesn't take care of her body at all except to exercise."  
  
"To easy with Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken training."  
  
Perfume just nodded as the pulled something from stuff space and smirked as she flipped it open and pulled out a little pencil and licked the end of it with an evil glint in her eye. Shampoo did the same, except she pulled out a razor and some shaving cream and began applying it to Ranma's legs in quick smooth motions. They giggled to themselves for the next few minutes as they worked, the shadows rolling over then and leaving just enough light to see their naked shadowed forms moving about Ranma at high speed, their eyes glowing as they worked and giggled occasionally. Lightning flashed as one of them held up what looked like some kind of panty, it almost glowed.  
  
**********  
  
Dressed in a baggy yellow and red outfit that looked like it was made out of plastic than actual cloth, Akira Tanaka trudged through the older portion of the Nerima sewer tunnel system with a frown on his face. As a middle aged man he looked kind of average, with a slight beer belly, five-o-clock shadow, and a bow legged walk he had developed over the years on the job. He had a helmet on his head with a florescent lamp set in the center to light his way as he moved deeper and deeper into an area of the tunnels that hadn't been touched in close to 60 years or more. He was one of the Tokyo's best sewer engineers and always got sent on jobs like this and had been doing them for over twenty years now. Over all that time he figured he'd seen and experienced just about everything one could down in these tunnels, but even he had to admit this had to be the oldest section he'd ever explored. The maps they had given him weren't exactly accurate either, but that was kind of common due to all the little underground projects the seemed to pop up here in Nerima, so he was sketching out a new map as he walked.   
  
Six hours ago his office had started receiving complaints about all the water backing up and flooding people's homes. The thought of it just made him grin, the smell alone as this happened must have happened while most of them were asleep. Of course they had woken him at four in the morning to go out and see what the problem was so he wasn't all that happy at the moment, but he liked his job so a little inconvenience every now and then was to be expected so this wasn't the first time either. The big question was where was he to start, there were six ancient pumping stations down here that needed to be checked and if he had to check them all it would take most of the day and even then there was no guarantee that he would be able to figure out what the problem was. His faulty map wasn't helping either, according to it he should have reached the first station by now, but for some reason he couldn't even hear it running. These things were huge, they had to be as they moved thousands of gallons of water along per second and kept the pipes pressurized enough to keep the fire hydrants in running order. This meant they were loud, very loud, but the silence down here was just a little bit eerie.   
  
After about another ten minutes of walking he finally reached a large door set into the side of the tunnel. Taking a rag out he moved to the door and wiped a couple decades of grime off the number plate set in the middle of the door and confirmed that it was the door he was looking for. This would lead to the pump station he was looking for and confirmed that the thing wasn't even running at the moment. If it had been running he wouldn't even be able to hear himself think straight, he wondered what had happened to make it quit running completely. These things were designed to run on even they had sprung a giant leak and only then stopped when the water got deep enough to activate a fail safe. With luck all he would have to do was get it running again and he could go back home, but now he was beginning to doubt that plan was going to work Shrugging his back pack off he opened it up and removed a large iron key and inserted it into the door's lock and was pleasantly surprised when it actually turned. Grinning at this bit of luck he put everything away and gave the door a hard yank and opened it for the first time in years. The thing was heavy and he had a hard time stopping it once it began to move, it pushed him back several feet before it stopped.  
  
The foul air on the other side was another surprise, it was worse than normal, almost like someone had decided this would be a good place to dump something they shouldn't have. Here in Nerima that meant it could be anything from some girl's messed up cooking to a decomposing body, this town had a little bit of everything and it just depended on the time of year. He really hoped it wasn't a body though, those things caused more problems than they were worth at times. He tried not to think about it to much as he made his way down the small tunnel and stepped onto the raised plat form that was about twenty feed above the main floor of the pumping station. He moved over to a small railing that allowed him to see what was down below, but was forced to depend on his helmet light to scan over everything down on the floor below. Without the pump running the lights wouldn't work, so he had to depend on his helmet light until he figured out how to start the thing again. Light reflected off the water that covered the floor below, but a glance over at the back wall illuminated the painted on ruler that was used for just such an occasion. According to it the water was only a couple feet deep so he wouldn't have any problems other than being forced to get dressed in his 'wet' suit, a plastic like cloth outfit that went over his current clothing. Then he looked to the far side of the room along one wall and finally got his first good look at the pump.   
  
It was about fifteen feet high and had over a dozen different pipes connected to it from all different directions. If he remembered right there was one large pipe leading out the back of the thing that went right to the next pump station. As he looked out over the area he debated whether he should call in and see if they could send some more people down here to help him out, this job was looking like it was just a little to big for him to fix on his own. After a couple of minutes he decided to see if he could get the water along the floor drained at least and see what kind of damage he was dealing with. As old as it was he kind of doubted it could be drained without the pump running, most of these tunnels had been build way back in the forties when the Americans had occupied the islands and given most everybody some kind of job to do. This place was from before even then so the normal set of things he could do were very limited, the original designers hadn't included things he really needed. There were a few though and he really hoped they still worked after all this time.   
  
A little while later, dressed in his 'wet' suit he moved over to the rusted over ladder that descended to the floor below. Once he determined what was wrong he would have to head back to his truck and grab the appropriate tools. He nodded, that would be a good time decide if he would need a little help with this as well. One thing he had already decided to bring back with him were several battery powered lanterns to light this place up, he felt like he was in a tomb for some reason. He stepped off the ladder and into the water and noticed that it came to just above his knees and was completely black with dirt and grime and other things he really didn't' want to think about at the moment. Carefully choosing where he placed his feet, he made his way across the chamber and over to the large pump. The giant rusting hulk just sat there as he used his helmet light to get a closer look at it and he quickly spotted the problem, it wasn't like it was hard to miss either. There was a five foot hole in the side of it and he knew he couldn't fix something like this on his own. These old machine's didn't have the interchangeable parts the modern one's had, they would have to replace the whole machine and that would take a few weeks at least. People would not be happy about this at all.  
  
Akira groaned, if this one had gone it meant that the others, which were just as old or older had been forced to take on the extra pressure. There was a good chance that they had all broken down like this. He would have to go and confirm what had happened to them as well, shaking his head he turned to leave and felt something brush along his leg. Gasping in shock he jumped back and nearly bounced off the giant pump. He could feel his heart thundering in his chest as he moved the light from his helmet across the water to see what it was and got a second shock as the water around his legs seemed to solidify. Then the water in front of him rose up and took on an almost human form, where it's eyes should have been were two glowing green spots that seemed to be looking right into his should.  
  
Akira screamed, but the water held him solid and even prevented him from tipping over or diving to the side. The thing reached out with one of it's arms and grabbed his throat and he could feel it draining his life. He screamed again, but this time it wasn't as loud and he was swiftly loosing consciousness. A few seconds later he slumped and the thing cocked it's head to the side as it reformed into Jade and stood on top of the water as if it was solid ground. The mans energy had been just what it needed, but something about it hadn't been right. Almost as if it was impure or something. She couldn't quite put her finger on what the problem was, but instantly knew that she had to have a specific kind of energy to survive. Those two on the ship had the kind of energy she needed, but this man did not, but she didn't understand what the difference was. All three of them had been human, two of them had been male, and yet this older male was different. Why?  
  
She felt a surge of energy off in the distance and her head snapped around to look in it's direction and for just a second she could feel and old enemy, Nephlite, casting a powerful spell of some kind. Fuzzy memories surfaced, bit they were somewhat indistinct, but she was positive that he'd just cast a spell that was used quite a bit in the Dark Kingdom. It had something to do with protecting one's territory. Shaking her head she reminded herself that getting involved with the Dark Kingdom would be incredibly stupid after what she had been forced to deal with lately. Looking around she floated up to the overlook and landed on the edge, moving over to the man's pack she pulled out a crude map and quickly located where she was. It would be a simple matter to get out of here without having to resort to the pipes again. Then she would have to experiment a little to see what kind of human energy she needed to survive in this world. Revenge on the Scouts was going to have to wait, she saw that now, first she would have to find a way to secure herself in this world. Then she could worry about revenge, until then she would have explore around and see what this world had to offer.   
  
Even as Jedite he had never taken the time to really look around, she had been to focused on the mission and with each failure the pressure just gotten heavier and heavier until Beryl had basically killed him. Now that he was in control of his body, his mind merged with the mind of the Youma Titus, there was this different perspective on things. She would have to bide her time though. She contemplated the shape shifting possibilities of Titus's powers as she walked along the tunnels and headed for the surface. There were so many things she could do now, she didn't have to worry about what everyone around her thought about her actions. Nor did she have to think about what kind of lethal spell would be enough to help her gain more power and favor from Beryl.   
  
Jade froze in mid step as it donned on her for the first time that she was free of Beryl's influence, her orders, free from the Dark Kingdom, completely. She hadn't really taken that into account when she woke up earlier, now that she was thinking a little more clearly she had to make sure she stayed free of Beryl's influence. Grinning a little bit she wondered if this might be her chance to do something else other than follow orders, to carve out her own Kingdom right here in the middle of Tokyo. As Jedite, a General of Queen Beryl's army, he had been instrumental in creating the Youma along with the others. Sure Metallia had helped out with her own extraordinary powers, but he had been given the task of figuring out a way to create the things. Nephlite, Zoicite, and even Kunzite had also lent a hand, but over time they had given their army of Youma personal touches as each of them experimented with the Youma life form. Centuries of study had allowed her to understand what each of them had changed in their Youma and how to pull them of. She had the knowledge to what she was thinking, all it would take is power and she could easily start building an army. It was an idea she liked, one she liked quite a lot and there was nothing that Beryl could do to stop her especially if that bungling fool Nephrite was handling the energy draining portion of the plan.   
  
**********  
  
It had been a great idea to find a remote house like this through a realtor instead of wasting magic to create one, then hide it, then cast a whole bunch of spells to punish intruders. It would have pissed off Queen Beryl more than he wanted to, so he had taken this rout instead and gotten a good deal in the bargain. He'd spent most of the day finding the place and casting several magical spells around the area to make sure no one even remembered it anymore. Now that a large evasion spell had been cast on the house even the neighbors, a few hundred feet away, didn't recall much of it and even then it took magic just to enter the place. It was a two story church that hadn't been used in years, surrounded by it's own little park complete with trees and a large garden that added to the privacy he required for his work. He was planning to use the stars to find the perfect targets for his mission and the church had taken a bit of work, but now it would work to make sure his magic would be amplified as much as possible as he tapped into the Power of the Stars.  
  
This was his specialty, he'd been doing it for centuries now and new every little detail of the skill. The house had taken about a week to construct and he'd spent a couple of days playing around with his new found freedom to make the place more to his liking and still stay within the rules. Already his mind was making plans for this place as he wove the final levels of a powerful spell engine he would use to find his targets, this way he wouldn't have to cast the main spell more than once. All he would really have to do is channel a bit of power to the engine and it would do the work for him, it was perfect and allowed him to horde as much magic as he needed.   
  
His position as the next General in charge came with a number of perks that Jedite had liked to throw in the other General's faces from time to time. The biggest was that he got to keep five percent of all the energy he collected from each successful take. It wasn't much on the surface, but when he could grab enough energy from one person, even more than what Jedite had grabbed from a whole crowd, he would have quite a bit after several attacks. It was so easy to do that he knew he couldn't fail, but he had one large problem to deal with, the Sailor Scouts and that red headed girl that had shown up Jedite at every turn. Even in the end Jedite had gone down at Beryl's hands, though he suspected the blonde moron had pulled something to save his life. It was something that any of them would have done if the situation demanded it and he had been up against a wall, so to speak.  
  
Still, he wasn't like Jedite, when it came to a threat like this he wouldn't just brush it off because the girls were all teenage girls in revealing clothes, he had other ways of dealing with them now that he had seen them in action against Jedite. They had shown on several occasions that they were quite dangerous to people they didn't like, but they were also untrained in their magic and even basic tactics. Except for the red head of course, she was the obvious leader and the one that led the rest of them during a fight. She was the most dangerous one of the four of them, he would have to find a way to work around those bitches. They had seemed to find every other plan that Jedite had enacted and had some kind of uncanny ability to find their Youma. He suspected that it was that red headed girl, she had the most magic of the group and might have some kind of ability to detect their Youma within a certain range.  
  
The red head was the newest member of the group, there had been three of them before she showed up and they had still been a pain in Jedite's ass. Could they all share some kind of ability to track them down in some way? He would have to find some way to test his idea some time, but right now he had to get on with his mission. Beryl was getting very impatient and testy lately, she hadn't expected him to take over two weeks to get ready before he even implemented his plans. With a shrug he moved into the room that used to house the main portion of the church, he had spent a great deal of time in this room preparing it for his upcoming mission. The floor was painted black to give it a bigger look, the black went up the wall and around the windows to let the light in into the room.   
  
The ceiling was a typical gothic design that he had adapted into a kind of white marble with his magic. The over all effect was quite impressive, even to him, and gave the room a very distinguished feel to it that reminded him of something that he had seen long ago. Shaking his head he stepped into a magical circle in the back corner of the room and looked up at the ceiling, channeling a large amount of magic. The room shimmers around him as it takes effect and seems to transport him into space as the stars start to sparkle in the air around him. Nephlite looks around and nods to himself, this was just what he wanted, with all the city lights around his house, using the stars in the sky around his house would have been impossible. So this would do and might even work even better as a focus for his spell.  
  
"All the world is ruled by the stars, from the lowly animal to the greatest of hunters, the stars rule them all." Nephlite says as he begins to glow, his eyes lose their irises and turn pure black with an unearthly glow. "Now Archer Sagittarius, guide my power and point me to the one person in all the city that will soon reach their ultimate potential! Show Me NOW!"  
  
The stars flicker around him as the power of his spell goes off and begins to form into a picture of light. Nephlite is surprise when the energy begins to waver, but he frowns and adds more power to it and forces the spell to work and within seconds he is looking at a picture of a teen aged girl with long, light brown hair done up in a pony tail and a completive spirit. She is dressed in a tennis outfit and holding a tennis racquet in mid swing. The nature of the spell isolates a person and identifies them for him and he grins evilly and laughs as he is given the name *Rui Saionji.  
  
"Rui Saionji you are about to aid me in my mission with your very life!" Nephlite said with a patented evil villain laugh.  
  
He let the spell go and the room returned to normal, it had even given him the girl's location. All he had to do was go and get her and everything would be perfect by this time tomorrow. On the way to the front door he transformed his clothes into a suit and taking on his Sanjouin Masato identity, adjusting his sports jacket, he stepping out side he looked around and realized that he had forgotten something. The one thing he needed the most of all at that exact moment. Standing in the driveway he looked down in the spot where he would have parked a flashy sports car if he had remembered to buy one along with the house, but no, he had more important things on his mind at the time. Grumbling to himself at forgetting such an important detail he sighed and walked off the property with his hands in his pockets.  
  
**********  
  
Dressed in her bright yellow pajamas, Usagi shuffled into her room and yawned as she wavered back and forth on her feet. This day had just been one long drain on her energy, she almost wondered if a Youma had come along and taken some of her energy when she wasn't paying attention. As she pulled the covers back she noticed that for once Luna wasn't around to pester her about finishing her homework and grinned a little. That was one hassle she didn't want to deal with right then. Crawling into bed and snuggling under the covers she was halfway asleep with in a few seconds. At the same time a portion of her mind went over the days's events, including what had happened to her right after school. Her mind wandered as she suddenly thought about what had happened...  
  
Slumping along, Usagi was reminded of why she hatted school so much. This whole day had been one hassle after another, after nearly being late once again she had managed to make it to her desk just as the bell rang. But not before she took out three desks, two of the boys, and the vice principle in one teeny tiny mistake and earned detention once again. Then if that hadn't been enough, Ranma had shown up this morning and she had spent the rest of the morning worrying about her friend, detention, and this surprise test that had been sprung on her at the last minute. Life was so unfair. She looked at the test again and whimpered a little at the twenty circled in red at the top and slumped over even more, now all she wanted was to catch a few hours of sleep before her mother found out about this little set back.  
  
She could barely keep her eyes open as she made her way home, resisting the temptation to go and visit Rei and see how she was doing. Instead she was ready to fall into bed and sleep until it was time for dinner where she would have to show her test to her mother. She sighed loudly as even her twin pony tails slumped down to the ground as she walked along. It didn't help that her hair was filled with chalk dust from all the erasers that had been thrown at her to keep her awake during detention, one could barely tell that her uniform was supposed to be blue. Teachers were such a pain, if she hadn't been forced to go to school she would have been infinity more happy. Still, she did like having her friends around to talk to while she was there so it was perfectly fine to go for that reason. Now if only she could get them all to go to the same school, even Rei.  
  
"Usagi!"  
  
She concentrated, placing one foot in front of the other as she went and taking extra careful care not to run into anyone like she did the last time this happened. Dragging her book bag on the ground wasn't that good for it, but she had other things to think about right then, like sleep and this annoying voice that seemed to sound like someone calling her name. That was impossible of course, there weren't any students left in the school at this time, well except for the clubs anyway.   
  
"Wait up! Usagi!"   
  
Coming to a stop, but not standing up straight, she looked over her shoulder to see who was yelling at her. The voice seemed familiar for some reason, though annoying, but her mind was to sleep deprived to push the information through until she got a look at who was yelling. Naru, the super happy, completely awake girl who just had to bother her at time like this. What the heck was she doing at school this late in the afternoon? Usagi tried to growl but it ended up being a giant yawn instead. Naru didn't notice as she ran up and smiled at her friend's blood shot eyes. She looked like she normally did, with shoulder length red hair, a bow in her hair, and the normal school uniform.  
  
"Usagi! Rui is playing tennis over at the courts, come on lets go and watch!" Naru exclaimed as she grabbed Usagi's arm and pulled her along.  
  
"But..." She tried as he feet dragged along the ground and Naru babbled at her.  
  
"She's been playing for a the last few years, training everyday and she is almost as good as a pro. Another few years and she will be able to enter tournaments! The school has been taking steps to get her the training she needs to make it, even giving her a pro tennis coach!"  
  
"I need..." She tried again as Naru picked up speed and Usagi's feet left the ground and started flapping in the wind, there was a nice dust trail though. It was going to be one of those days, but at least it was Naru, anyone else and she would have had to ditch them in favor of her bed. The breezed around the side of the school and over to towards the tennis courts where a couple dozen girls were standing around waiting to play a practice game. There were three courts inside a tall fenced in area and all of them were being used at the moment. Naru slowed down as they neared the fence around the court and slammed Usagi's face first up against the fence by accident.   
  
Several of the girls gave them weird looks, but Naru ignored them as she started jumping up and down.  
  
"Who was this again?" Usagi asked as the wind made her long pony tails flap back and forth.  
  
"My sister! Rui!" Naru yelled happily.  
  
"Sister?! Since when do you have a sister?!" Usagi yelled in shock, her tired body temporarily forgotten. "I've known you for years and you never told me anything about a sister!!"  
  
"That's Rui over there in the white headband, were not really sisters, but our parents are good friends so we've been playing with each other since we were kids!"  
  
"Um..." Usagi says, she was at a total loss now. Her and Naru have been friends for several years and yet she had never heard of this girl.  
  
"Go Rui Go!" Naru cheered her friend and jumped up and down happily.   
  
Unsure what to do, Usagi peeled her face off the fence and stepped back to watch Naru's friend play and had to admit that the girl seemed to know what she was doing. Usagi smiled as the ball went back and forth between the two girls and realized something really quick. Tennis, when you aren't playing it yourself, is really boring. Usagi fought the urge for as long as she could, but in the end she couldn't help herself as she stumbled over to a nearby tree, sat down, and fell over even as she started to snore. No one seemed to notice as Naru was yelling loud enough to make scene and embarrass her friend. Umino, a fourteen year old boy with super thick glasses and a wild hairdo, wandered over to the snoring blond and wondered if she had some weird form of Narcolepsy. He kicked her foot a few times just to see what would happen, then started to take notes when she didn't wake up right away.  
  
Naru continued to cheer her friend and forgot about Usagi for a little while as Umino wandered over to find out what she was up to. She thumped him over the head when he started talking about how the wind could affect the spin on a tennis ball and cause some pretty wild twists and bounces if one wasn't careful. Then moved on to a subject that seemed to fascinate him for some strange reason, earth worms. Naru had to thump him a few more times to drive him off before going back to cheer for her friend.   
  
**********  
  
The convertible was red, fast, and one hundred percent gas guzzling pride as it pulled out of the car rental place. It's tires smoked as the car accelerated through traffic with a disguised Nephlite behind the wheel grinning like a madman, his long brown hair streaming out behind him as he ran a couple of red lights. Now that he had his wheels he could set his plan in motion and as he switched gears with a loud grinding sound, he had to remind himself that he didn't have a clue how to actually drive and copying what he'd seen on TV just didn't seem to work. It was down right weird, but about twenty minutes later, with about two dozen near misses and three panicked pedestrians, he peeled into the school and hops out. Several of the girls, who are bored, notice the sweet looking hot rod and the guy that was driving it, they develop little hearts in their eyes and sigh.  
  
"Whose that cute guy?" One squeals, catching the attention of everyone else.  
  
"Where?!" Usagi yells, startling Naru and Umino as she appears out of nowhere.   
  
"He owns his own business I heard!" Several people say as Nephlite swaggers forward with his hands in his pocket, his sunglasses glinting in the sun.   
  
Naru and Usagi turn around to see a tall, cute guy with long brown hair heading their way! "I'm in love..." they mumble and take in all the little details. They are paying so much attention to him that they fail to notice the smoke rising from the engine of the car he arrived in. Though Umino sees it and wonders why the guy got the car if he didn't know how to drive it properly.  
  
With a smirk he suddenly leaps over the fence, flips in mid air, and lands on the court near Rui Saionji who looks a little startled. Before she can say anything one of the coaches that had been observing the match got in the guys way. "You can't be here without permission! Leave now!"   
  
Ignoring the coach and brushing the guy to the side, Nephlite focuses on his mission and gives Rui a fierce look and says, "Your racket."   
  
Somewhat startled, she shows it to him without a second thought and lowers it a second later as her coach gives her a weird look. Nephlite walks across the court and 'borrows' one of the other girl's rackets and takes up a position. "Alright Rui, I've heard stories about you from some of my students, so I want you to give me your best serve and lets see what you can do!"   
  
Still a little shocked, Rui glances at her coach and at his nod, nearly as confused as she is she does just that. Nephlite focuses his magic to put on a bit of a show of power and easily knocks it back at twice the speed she had it at, striking Rui's arm. At her shocked look and rather large bruise forming on her arm she glances at the tall brown haired stranger. "Who are you anyway?"  
  
"I'm Sanjouin Masato, a professional tennis coach from America and I wanted to see what you can do."  
  
"A coach?" Rui mutters.  
  
"Now, you should be able to put a little more weight in your serve and gain enough power to match even a professional tennis player." He reaches out to pick up her racket and twirls it around a few times as he pretends to test it's weight. Holding his hand out, he thinks, 'I charge this racket with the power of the stars and the Dark Kingdom!' A small red symbol appears on it and fades almost instantly, taking less than a second before handing it back with a very charming grin that makes Rui blush a little. Now Remember what I said, put more weight into the serve!" Nephlite bows, then leaps back over the fence, hops in his car, and roars off campus while still in first gear, making most of the students in the nearby auto body shop wince in sympathy for the car.  
  
Rui's eyes go blank for a second as she stands there holding the racket, then she slowly moves to pick up a ball, tosses it in the air, and gives it an over head serve. She hits it so hard that it flies across the court and makes a hole in the ground on the other side and destroys the tennis ball almost completely! The crowd is amazed and begins to cheer, even Rui's coach looks on in shock and wonders what has come over his student. It isn't like he hasn't told her the same thing on several occasions before this, but she's never been able to get it just right no matter how much she practices. Now some stranger comes out of nowhere, tells her the same thing, and she's suddenly able to hit the ball that hard. He cheered happily as she did it once more, this time accidentally embedding the ball in the fence after it rebounded off the court. Naru on the other hand is shocked as she grips the fence and watches her friend, a worried look on her face as they observe the suddenly cruel glint in her eyes. The person she has known for so long just doesn't seem to be there anymore, she seems to have changed into something completely different.  
  
"This just isn't like her..." Naru mutters to herself.  
  
**********  
  
From out of the shadows, came a feline form as stalked through the over grown grass at the edge of the park. It's eyes reflecting the light from the moon as it shined down upon the city, but it wasn't enough to reveal it's shadowy form if anyone saw it. Stalking out of the grass, it looked around for a second to see where it was and raced up the street behind the buildings, keeping to the shadows to make sure it wasn't spotted. A few minutes later it stopped in front of the Crown Arcade and looked up at the closed sign on the doors and sat down. Looking around, Luna made sure now one was about as the symbol on her forehead lit up and sent a beam of golden light into a small, almost invisible sensor just above the door. It lit up the night around her, but after a couple of seconds the metal cage lifted up just enough for her to walk under. The glass doors opened as well and the internal security system of that the building used was altered not to detect her as she entered.  
  
The inside of the place was quiet and dark with all it's games shut down, but she raced across the arcade until she hopped up on the Sailor V video game. Touching the screen with her paw activated a touch sensitive screen, it lit up and illuminated the room for a second as the computer it was connected to quickly booted up. Luna was still astounded that the only place in Juban that had a decent computer that the Scouts could have easy access to was in an Arcade, but it had only taken a bit of fiddling with the internal layout of the Sailor V game to set up what she wanted and connect it to the satellite hook up on the roof that was unobtrusively pointed right at the moon. The screen blinked and she touched the cursor, the screen scanned her paw print.  
  
*Name and Password.*  
  
"Luna, Password: The Kitty Meows at Moonlight." Luna said.  
  
*Hello Luna, how may I help you?*  
  
"Things have been going rather badly lately."  
  
*How so?*  
  
"Ranma was kicked out of the shrine and is off in Juban somewhere and I don't know what to do about it."  
  
*Ranma will do what is expected of her, you don't need to worry about that Luna, but she must be handled carefully or you will lose her completely.*  
  
"What must I do exactly?" Luna asked.  
  
*I have been trying to find out what I can on Ranma and who she might have been in the Silver Millennium, if it is who I think it was, then we need her for the plan to work.*  
  
Luna was shocked, the plan was something that even she didn't fully understand. It had never been fully explained to he either, but she did know that they could lose some of the Scouts and still pull it off if they were careful, how could one person have so much influence? "How is that possible?"  
  
*We're not sure, but if we lose her cooperation then accomplishing the plan will take far longer than was originally determined, it's even possible we might have to take a few chances that could work for or against us. Her strength and skill are paramount to the plan. We do know that she has some kind of major role to play, but we don't know what that is exactly, she must stick with the Scouts for it to work though.*  
  
"I'll do what I can..."  
  
*At the moment that isn't a problem, she will return and help out, but we can't see what the future might be just yet so be careful how you treat her.*  
  
"Yes sir, anything else?"  
  
*There have been some magical energies moving around Juban over the last few days, but they were cloaked and barely detectable.*  
  
"I'll have Mercury scan for them, she might have a little better luck since she's closer to the source."  
  
*Perhaps, but you also need to know that another Scout has been detected.*  
  
"REALLY?! That's great, where can I find her?" Luna shouted.  
  
*She is to far away at the moment to get an exact fix, but you will be informed as soon as she can join up with the team.*  
  
"Alright." Luna said with a nod. "Do you know which one it is?"  
  
*No, but there are only two left to find so it has to be one of them.*  
  
"Jupiter or Venus."  
  
*Yes.*  
  
The lights flickered for a second and the screen darkened, cursing, Luna knew that the connection had been lost. They wouldn't be able to talk again for a while, running across the arcade, she made her way outside and looked up into the sky and nodded. There were clouds covering the moon as a small storm rolled over the city; turning to the arcade she fired another beam from her forehead into the sensor and let the doors shut even as she ran for home. She wanted to make it back before the rains started, being wet was one thing she hated above everything else, that or being caught doing something that a cat shouldn't be able to do. Across the street, if she had been paying attention, she might have seen her worst nightmare come true as a giant fat gray cat watched her from the shadows with an odd look on it's face before looking back at the Arcade. It was sitting on another cat as it cleaned itself absently, its eyes gleamed brightly as it watched Luna run down the street.  
  
*********  
  
Ranma's eyes snapped open and for several seconds she could only lay there trying to figure out what in the world had happened. She didn't remember going to sleep, and yet here she was wrapped in her sleeping bag next to a nearly dead fire. Groaning she snuggled deeper into the sleeping bag to try and get warmer, but her mind was trying to tell her something. She thought about the last thing she could remember and blushed a little as she realized with a mental flash that it was a couple of totally naked Amazons hitting each other with pillows. Blushing even more, her face turning bright red, Ranma hid deeper in her sleeping bag and hoped she hadn't done anything to get the girls mad. It would explain why she didn't remember what had happened after that and it certainly wouldn't be the first time an Amazon had knocked her out for looking to close.  
  
Her eyes snapped open as she recalled the last time this had happened over a year ago. Almost hesitantly her hand inched up her body and touched her chest and felt something she kind of expected, but dreaded more than anything else. Her fingers traced down her stomach and confirmed that it had happened again and cursed silently. Why Amazons thought doing this to her was funny she would never know, but it didn't take much exploration to find out what she wanted to confirm. It was silk, barely reached down to her thighs, hugged her body like a glove, and that she was wearing PANTIES. Letting out an exclamation of surprise she tried to grab the material and rip it from her body, there was no way she would be caught dead in this outfit. Then she heard the giggle and knew it was already to late as her sleeping bag was picked up and with a yank completely pulled off of her.  
  
"Hey!" Ranma yelled as she fell to the ground and landed on her shoulder and rolled to her feet.  
  
"Ranma is to cute in that outfit, it perfect." Shampoo said with a grin.  
  
"Oh indeed, to to cute Ranma." Perfume said as she pulled a camera from nowhere and took several shots before Ranma could even blink.  
  
Shuddering, Ranma looked down to actually see what she was wearing. It turned out to only be mildly bad, but even that was to much for her to take. It was a typical Chinese short dress made from shimmering red silk with a flower design woven right into the upper chest starting at her left breast and weaving around her body and ending on her right hip. "AGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! WHAT AM I WEARING?!" Ranma screamed as she waved her arms up and down.  
  
Which wasn't a good idea in that particular dress as it lifted up and down to show off the white panties she was wearing. Screaming, Ranma ran around the area like a maniac for several minutes, Perfume laughed so hard that she fell down and continued to laugh. Shampoo just smirked and enjoyed the show and wondered how they could get Ranma next time. No matter how often they did this Ranma just never seemed to learn, maybe next time they would use a see through nighty with a G-string panty, all in blue. Back in the village all the girls had some form of lingerie laying around for that special time and Ranma had been dressed up in almost all of it at one point or another. Then with a casual toss she threw her Bonbori right into Ranma's path as she ran around a tree and tripped her.  
  
"Wha? Aghaaa!" Ranma yelled as she planted her face in the grass. Ranma ended up flat on her chest with her ass in the air, the dress riding up a bit to reveal the Hello Kitty panties she had on. She groaned in pain as Perfume took the opportunity to take a few more pictures. "I'm going to get revenge, you do understand that, right?"  
  
"Oh I'm looking forward to it Ranma, where's the fun of doing this if we only get to see it once?" Perfume said and patted Ranma's rump a couple of times and giggled.  
  
"Shampoo like Panty, they look comfortable." She said, which set Perfume off again.  
  
All this noise attracted Ito, who had been asleep inside Ranma's pack again, she stuck her red furred head out and got her first look at Ranma's new clothing, position, and panties. Ranma ignored the sudden onslaught of snickers that were eminating from her pack as she stood up, glared at her friends and stalked over to her pack to grab something decent to wear. Upending her pack, Ranma dumped out one snickering cat and the rest of her clothing and ignored the set that seemed to be covered in cat hair. She didn't care who saw her at the moment since the dress was worse than going naked, at least in her opinion, and stripped down completely and quickly got dressed in her normal out fit. The only difference was that this one was all black with silver edging, she had spotted it while wandering around the mall with Usagi and Rei one afternoon and taken a liking to it instantly. She completely missed Perfume using the last of her pictures to get a few shots of her naked.  
  
"Ranma are we going to be coming back here?" Perfume asked.  
  
"I was planning on it, this is a good place to stay and it's isolated enough that we won't have to worry about people walking off with our stuff." Ranma said as she snapped on a pair of heavy metal bracers she hadn't worn in a while. They were a bright silver with dueling dragons etched into the metal, the details made them hard not to admire.  
  
Nodding, Perfume put the camera back where she had gotten it and went to finish picking up her camping equipment. "Where are we going to leave hour stuff?"  
  
"There's that big bush over there, we can leave our stuff behind it for the day I guess." Ranma said with a shrug. Though in her mind she was still plotting her revenge, it would have to be something they would never forget, back in the village she never had a chance because all the other girls were working against her, but here in Tokyo they didn't have all the other girls to keep her in line.  
  
Shampoo and Perfume edged away from Ranma and develop large sweat drops as she started to cackle a little maniacally.  
  
"Shampoo think it good idea to leave Ranma by self for while." Shampoo said a little nervously.  
  
"You might be right, lets go before she comes to her senses and tries something weird." Perfume said. They ran off and a few seconds later jumped the wall to vanish from sight.  
  
Still giggling, Ranma finally came back to her senses and noticed that the girls were gone and cursed. They'd gotten away, but   
  
there would be time to make them pay. "Did they say where they were going Ito?"  
  
"Sorry Ranma, but they just ran off. It must have had something to do with your insane cackling a few seconds ago." Ito muttered and wondered if she should have take a few seconds to get out of the area as well.  
  
"Oh well, I'll just pay them back later."  
  
"Well you need to get over to Juban today Ranma."   
  
"Why?" Ranma asked in surprise. "I need to wait for that Dr. Tofu guy to get done with those tests."  
  
"Because you have to go and talked to your friends."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"After yesterday's fight you need to sit down and talk with the rest of the Scouts and let them know what all happened yesterday."  
  
Ranma looked a bit confused. "But they were there, so I don't need to tell them anything."  
  
"They may have been there, but they will have questions to ask you, especially about your two new friends, those other girls, and that strange Youma we encountered. The meeting is a way to let everyone get a handle on what happened when they were away from the main fight or to find mistakes and correct them."  
  
Nodding, Ranma shrugged and sighed. "I normally do that kind of thing on my own, but I was a little distracted last night so it's a good idea. Maybe it will help get the others to fight a little better as well."   
  
"They just don't have your experience Ranma, give them time and I guarantee that they will get better than you expect."  
  
"Fine, fine, I'll head back to Juban for the day, but I'll have to get back here tonight since I don't have a home currently."   
  
"Don't worry about it, I will make some arrangements to get a place to stay." Ito says.  
  
"How the heck are you going to do that? Your a cat!" Ranma snaps.  
  
Ito laughs. "I have my ways, so let me get to work and by the time you get back tonight we can get set up."  
  
She didn't really want to think about how a cat was going to get her a place to stay, but decided to go along with it. They had their tents after all so it wasn't like they couldn't just camp out here if they needed to. She nods, waves goodbye and runs across the property, through the trees, and jumps the wall. With a huff Ito wanders back over to Ranma's pack and hops back inside and lays down for a little nap before she sets to work. She was a Mooncat, and adviser to potential royalty and figures it won't take much to set things up, all she had to was call Control and they would do the work for her.   
  
Several minutes after that Ranma rounds a corner and sprints down the road at a high rate of speed, dodging various people, hopping over a car, several pedestrians, as she runs from an angry dog that she seemed to have picked up a few streets back. She hadn't meant to step on it, but the thing had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Glancing back she grins a little as the tiny little hair ball tries to keep up with her, it's miniature legs pumping as fast as they can as it chases her, it's loud 'Yip Yip Yip' bark just loud enough to be annoying. Jumping in the air and doing a flip, she lands on a fence and takes off in the direction of Juban, but she was still about an hour or so away at this pace.   
  
"Yip Yip Yip!"   
  
'Life has certainly gotten interesting lately.' Ranma thinks to herself as she picks up a little speed and soon vanishes in the distance.  
  
Percy, the Shitzu skids to a stop and struts back home with its head held high. It had shown the upstart what happened when they messed with Him.  
  
**********  
  
There is a light wind blowing over the court yard to Rei's temple a couple days later as the girls gather for a meeting/study session. Rei is not in a good mood to begin with, her grandfather had promised to keep her identity a secret along with the other girls, but was still angry. She had never seen him truly angry before and somehow the deal with Ranma had set this off. Ranma had been kicked out of the shrine and no matter how hard she tried he would not relent, saying that Ranma had betrayed his trust and that was all he would say on the subject. Then he had grounded her for two full months for allowing herself to be placed in such a situation and not telling him about it. He hadn't decided on what the punishment would be, but if Ranma's name was even mentioned around him she would earn even more punishment. Which was how a two week grounding had turned into two months.  
  
The only thing was currently allowed to do was go to school, do extra chores, and Scout related activities. Everything else was forbidden, that was why her friends were even allowed here at all. Grandpa Hino had stated that he would be off the grounds for a couple of hours to give them time to talk and him to do some more thinking. Luna had shown up first, impatient as ever to hear any new news that might be able to be of use. Then Ami had come in reading a chemistry book and eating some ice cream, some how walking and reading at the same time. They gathered around the table in the front room while Rei passed out some cookies she had gotten for the meetings. Luna jumped up on the table and cleared her throat as she glanced at everyone.  
  
"I talked to Central Control last night." Luna says.  
  
"Central Control?"   
  
Luna nods, but doesn't say anything else. "It concerned Ranma. It seems we have to be very careful with her right now or things could go bad for us. If we lose Ranma and she doesn't come back, Central thinks that defeating this threat will be nearly impossible."  
  
Rei snorted. "Yeah right, Ranma isn't exactly a team player Luna."  
  
"Ranma knows she was too rough on you and Ami talked to her about it."  
  
"She made her thoughts quite plain Luna, she doesn't want us around, we just get in her way."   
  
"Don't be that way Rei, you know that Ranma didn't think we were ready to be at the Airport and I think she was right." Ami said with a little force.  
  
Rei gasped. "What?! How can you say that after the way she yelled at us?!"  
  
"Ranma is a trained fighter and she still had problems with Jedite and his planes, we went in with no plans and tried to do what we have always done. Shoot it until it's dead, but with Jedite that didn't work, he was expecting us."  
  
"We kicked his ass!" Rei nearly yelled.  
  
"Yeah!" Usagi agreed, not having followed the conversation past the first few words.  
  
"We need to be prepared for the next attack and if we don't alter our plan of attack, we will be placing ourselves in more danger than we need to be in. Ranma doesn't have the ability to use tact to explain things, she just knows how to fight and tell others when they can't. I've been looking into martial artists since Ranma showed up to see if I could understand her better and she shows all the signs of a rather horrible childhood."  
  
"We know all this Ami, Ranma explained some of her upbringing to us the other day." Rei pointed out, though conceding that it certainly wasn't the full truth.  
  
Ami nodded. "Ranma didn't even come close to telling us everything and I don't blame her very much. Her father taught her how to fight for years and didn't seem to even treat her like a girl. She fights from a head on position, and takes life from the same position without knowing any of the social niceties that go along with such a thing."  
  
Nodding, Rei conceded that as true.  
  
"So we need to try and plan our nest attack in some way, that way we can do two things. Increase our chances of winning such a battle and to prove to Ranma that we aren't useless in a fight."  
  
"How do you plan to do that?" Luna asked, a bit surprised at where this conversation was going. The last time they had talked about Ranma they had all been just a little peeved at the red headed girl's actions. Rei was acting as she always did, but Ami wasn't being as angry as she had been the last time they talked. Then in the other corner Usagi was eyeing a manga that Rei had left out before they showed up, her hand slowly inching towards it.   
  
Ami pulled a few sheets of paper out of her school bag and sat them on the table and just knew she was going to have to talk them into this carefully. "We need to begin small and work hour way up, the first thing is learning some basic tactics. I was thinking that instead of yelling out our plans while we are standing in front of the enemy, we could make up some plans before hand and give them simple name. That way we could call out, 'plan 1' and attack the monster using that, perhaps even some hand signals* of some kind. There are a whole set of them available in the Mercury Computer if anyone wants to learn them, the Lunar Guard of the Moon used to use them in dangerous situations according to the files."  
  
For some reason Usagi looked horrified as she tried to assimilate all that and her brain started to freeze up, instead she turned, and dove at Rei's bed. Rei's head snapped to the side as she saw a trail of yellow hair flow out behind the diving girl. Her hand snaked out and grabbed Usagi's ankle and stopped her in mid dive and slamming her down on the ground with a thump.   
  
"Rei?!" Usagi wined as she strained for the manga.  
  
"USAGI! Pay attention!"  
  
"But..." She wined and nearly started to cry. "I don't want to learn all that stuff! Let's just go and get some ice cream instead?!"  
  
Luna sighs and hangs her head. "You have to be more serious, this isn't a game you know!"  
  
"Calm down you two, this will take time and we can do it slowly so that no one is overwhelmed. With Ranma gone at the moment we can make we can make up for lost time and turn ourselves into a force to be feared by all the Youma, no matter how strong. Usagi, you can learn these, they can be incorporated into your style just as easily as those poses you do when you transform." Ami said mildly, it wasn't the full truth, but enough to help keep Usagi from backing out completely.  
  
Glomp! Usagi hugs Ami. "Your my only friend Ami!"  
  
"Um..." Ami says, just a little rattled.  
  
"Do you want to learn these hand signals and tactics today?" Rei asked, thinking of all the work she had to do now that she was grounded and giving a little wince. One thing her grandpa was good at was giving her work to do around the shrine, there was always something that needed fixed or cleaned with just the two of them there.  
  
"No, not today since I have something to do later on, but I was thinking that over the next couple of weeks we could start working on them. The Dark Kingdom seems to only send a Youma ever few days so we should have time to slowly adapt them into our fighting style. I figure it will confuse them enough for us to get the upper hand. I really don't think they are taking us seriously or they would be using more resources to find us." Ami said with a shrug.  
  
"Where do we start then?" Rei asked as she looked at one of the signals and stuck her arm out. Nearly hitting Usagi across the nose and scaring her enough to make her gasp and fall down.  
  
"Usagi, what are you doing?!" Rei growled. How in the world this girl could be a Scout was a total mystery. She could understand Ami, she had a lot of brains and took the job seriously, but when it came to the super klutz here she had her doubts.  
  
"But Reiiii!" Usagi said as she held up the manga she had been reaching for. "Hiro just insulted Akira and they had a fiiiight."   
  
Rei's eye twitched, at least Ranma didn't steal all her manga when ever she had the chance.   
  
Ami sighed and handed a sheet with pictures on it that described the signals to Usagi. "Lets just learn the signals printed on this page while we have the chance, there are only forty three of them and about twenty five apply to our use. Those are the one's I highlighted for you, you should have them down in no time if you practice a little. We don't need to learn the number signals yet, so that leaves us with fifteen to learn, we can all do that in next to no time. Eventually we need to learn what all of them mean and that will lead us right into the next lesson on basic tactics. It would be a good idea if Ranma learned these too, but since she isn't here we need to work that much more."  
  
Beep, beep!  
  
"Oh thank god!" Usagi says as something in her purse beeps at her, blushing as she stands up in a swirl of hair, pulls something small out and looks at it for a second before she tucks the device back inside. "I have to go and visit a friend, I'll look these over later. Bye!" She yells as she runs out of the room leaving the page sitting on the table. Ami adjusts her glasses and frowns a little as Rei growls.  
  
"You know, I expected her to do that the instant you mentioned learning new things." Rei says a few seconds later and heaves a sigh and rolls her eyes.  
  
Ami nodded. "I'm kind of curious about when she started carrying a pager around in her purse, she's never mentioned it before."  
  
"Her father got one for her the other day, it's bight pink and has little rabbits all over it. As far as I know she's only given the number to her friend Naru." Luna says with a cat shrug. After all this time she was getting used to these kinds of things. "She showed it me and stated, 'It's not a Sailor Scout device so I'm not going to give the number to just anyone.' and gave me this regal looking sniff and stalked off."  
  
"She'll have lost or broken it by the end of the week." Rei snapped.  
  
"How do you figure that?" Ami asked.  
  
"She's a klutz, she'll fall down or drop it somewhere and shatter it into a thousand pieces."  
  
Luna sighed and wondered where Ito was.  
  
**********  
  
"Usagi, I'm so worried about Rui, she's so different now! Just a few days ago we were joking around together and having fun, but now it's like she's a completely different person and I don't know what to do about it." Naru says and flops back on Usagi's bed.  
  
"How's she changed? She seemed to get so inspired from what that brown haired hunk said to her a few days ago."   
  
Naru thinks back to when they were kids and remembers the first time they met, when Rui had chased away some boys that were picking on her between classes. Over time they had grown closer and closer and even when they were older and Rui had taken up tennis they had played around on the courts to pass the time. It had always made them happy to pal around together, but now things were changing and she couldn't understand why. "Usagi, she's changed, there is this cruel look in her eyes now as she practices tennis. And that serve of hers, its gotten strong enough to hurt someone. She won't even think about going home either, all she does is practice constantly. Even her parents have gotten worried about her, when they tried to take her home the other day she threw them off the court and told them to Mind their own business!"  
  
Usagi gaped. "No way?! Really?"  
  
"I don't know what's wrong..." Naru says and starts to cry a little.   
  
"Oh, Naru..." Usagi says and hugs her friend. "She's still at the tennis courts at school right?"  
  
"Yeah..."   
  
"Then let's go and see what's wrong with her, this doesn't sound right."  
  
Naru nods and stands up. "Let's go, she'll listen to the two of us."  
  
About half an hour later they arrive at the courts to see Rui in the same court they had seen her in before, playing against a couple of guys. Rui tossed the little yellow ball high in the air and hits it towards the boys. They scream and dive out of the way in fear as it blasts a small hole in the court just at the edge of the out of bounds line. There are several there already, the fear in the guys faces is enough to shock Usagi as they slam into the fence.  
  
"Rui!" Naru yells, but the girl doesn't seem to hear her as she lets off a cruel laugh. "I thought you were PROFESSIONALS! That was pathetic, where's all this vaunted skill you are supposed to possess, what use is it if you can't even return my SERVE?!"  
  
The guys throw their rackets down and runs off the court.  
  
"Giving up already? Am I to much for you to even play against?" Rui laughs again and bounces a ball.   
  
If Usagi hadn't been paying attention to the little details she might have wondered where the ball even came from considering Rui hadn't even moved off the court or moved to grab a new one out of the can by the fence. Instead they barged in just as the guys were leaving, or in this case limping and in some cases holding each other up. Naru ran over to her friend and had to suppress a shudder as those evil eyes turned towards her and she felt something she hadn't felt in a couple of months, not since her mother had been possessed by that monster.   
  
"Rui, you have to fight it, I won't let you go!" Naru yelled and made a grab for her friend's wrist, but Rui jerked away with a snarl.  
  
"Naru?" Usagi asks, not understanding what her friend is talking about.  
  
"Leave me alone!" Rui screams as her body suddenly begins to glow a deep red and she pushes Naru away from her with little trouble.  
  
"Oh this is all I need." Usagi mutters, suddenly beginning to understand what the problem is. She reached for her communicator, but hesitated as she stood there with Naru able to see her every move. "Naru, listen to her!"  
  
Several miles away in his secluded house Nephlite looks up from where he is reading the newspaper and nods as he stands up and walks across the room and enters the specially designed chamber to see that it was time. He grins evilly as he calmly walks over to the center of the room and begins to emit a black aura of power. Within seconds he is synched with his web of power and he latches onto the signal that his victim was putting out in waves. "Here energy has reached it's PEAK! TESUNII COME FORTH AND DO YOUR MASTER'S BIDDING!" He screams. With a mighty push of is power the whole room begins to tremble as the orders are sent forth and the command sent across the city, right to the Racket that Rui was at that moment holding so tightly that there wouldn't have been a way to remove it from her hand.  
  
The racket flares with evil energy and in the blink of an eye Rui is drained of her energy and the aura flaring around her vanishes into the racket. As she faints the Racket warps and contorts in her hand until she lets go and falls to the ground and the Racket quickly turns into a monster. It is over six foot high, vaguely female and it wearing a black body suit with large red shoulder pads that stick out to the sides. In it's hand is a phantom Racket made of fire with what looks like a tennis ball stuck in the center where the strings should have been. The thing's head is it's most distinctive feature though, it has long elf like ears that flare off to the sides with red dangling earrings, a pointed chin, green irisless eyes that glow with power, and small fangs jutting out of her mouth.  
  
"TESUNII!" It yells out as its form becomes complete and looks around to see Naru and Usagi gaping at it and it lifts its racket and in one fluid motion sends a beam of energy flying at them.  
  
Usagi panics and pushes Naru out of the way just as it hits the ground right where they had been and sends both of them flying into the fence. Groaning in pain Usagi shakes her head a little as she sits up and looks around to see that Naru is out cold on the other side of the court. She reaches into her skirt pocket and taps a button on her communicator to let the others know there is a problem and wonders if she'll be able to take this thing on before the others get here. Pulling out her locket she yells out "Moon Prisim Power!" and transforms into Sailor Moon.   
  
"You DARE desecrate these grounds with your unwanted presence?! I am Sailor Moon and in the name of the moon I will punish you!"   
  
Tesunii yawns and sends a black ball of energy right into Sailor Moon's chest even as she is finishing up her speech, the energy   
  
forms around her and takes the shape of a giant tennis ball with just her hands, boots, and head sticking out of the things. It waves the racket around and Moon screams as she is lifted into the air and bounced a couple of times before being sent careening all over the tennis court, bouncing off the ground, the fence, even the net before landing on her face and taking a bad bounce and rolling over onto her back. A rose flies out of the nearby trees just as Tesunii is about to finish off Sailor Moon once and for all. The flash of read passes right in front of her face and startles her enough to look into the trees. "Who dares to interfere?!"  
  
"You don't want to know monster!" Tuxedo Mask yells as he vaults the fence and lands beside Sailor Moon and smirks a little at her predicament.  
  
"So you want to join you friend, is that it?" Tesunii screams as she spins her racket in her hand and sends another ball of black energy fling at him.  
  
"Ha! You're not fast enough to get me with one of those!" He yells and side steps it and as it blows a hole in the back fence large enough for him to run through.   
  
Growling in anger, Tesunii snarls and is about to attack again when Tuxedo reaches into his cape and pulls out a cane that extends across the court in the blink of an eye and slams into the monster's stomach with enough force to make it lose it's concentration and the giant tennis ball around Moon vanishes almost instantly.   
  
"Lets work together on this one, Sailor Moon." He asks as he helps her to her feet.  
  
"You got it, this thing is dust!" She yells as she pulls her tiara off her head and begins to charge it.  
  
Tuxedo Mask puts his cane away and replaces it with a rose and sends it flying across the tennis courts so that the end with the petals hit the thing in the face to temporarily blind it. Tesunii screams in rage, hold her hand out and fires a blast of black energy right at Sailor Moon in a blind attempt to hit her. The Youma's instincts are good enough to come close, but Tuxedo Mask steps in front of Moon at the last second and takes the blast for her. "Now Sailor Moon!" He cries even as he is blown off his feet and through the hole in the fence that had been created earlier.  
  
"MOON TIARA ACTION!" Moon yells and sends the disk of light right at the Youma, and is shocked as the thing bats the tiara out of the air and into the concrete at it's feet. "Whaa?"  
  
"Do you think I'm going to be taken out by a stupid little toy like that?!" Tesunii growls out as it tosses the remains of Tuxedo's Masks flower to the ground to join the bent and twisted Tiara.  
  
"WHAT'S GOING ON?! THE TIARA ALWAYS WORKS!" Sailor Moon screams and backs up a step, shock written all over her face.  
  
Tesunii pops her knuckles a bit and smiles evilly. "Do you think I'm that weak?"  
  
"Oh crap…" Moon mutters.   
  
The Youma's body flares with energy and gains even more mass as it grows about three feet higher. A volleyball sized black energy tennis ball appears in her hand and she tosses it into the air. "This girl's main talent was a serve, so lets see just what kind of damage it can do."   
  
Using the oversized racket, Tesunii sent the ball of energy right at the two defenders and Tuxedo Mask suddenly grabs Sailor Moon and tosses her to the side just as the ball hits the ground where they were standing just a second before with a massive explosion that destroyed all the concrete on that side of the court, ripped the net to shreds, and blew the back part of the fence into several shredded pieces of metal. Tesunii laughed at the destruction and turned to the side and looked up on top of the fence where Nephlite was floating in the air looking down at the destruction arrogantly. "You missed them."  
  
"Yes Master, but they won't survive this fight for long."  
  
Nephlite looked down at the bruised and bleeding form of Sailor Moon as she dug herself out of the pile of rubble that had washed over her as it was pushed by the explosion. Her outfit was ripped in several places and she had blood running down the side of her face from where a piece of shrapnel had glanced off the side of her head. He marveled at the amount of protective magic that must go into these girls outfits to keep them from being killed by the attack.   
  
"I can't be taken out by an attack like that." Moon said hesitantly, her fear evident now that she could see that there was new General to fight.  
  
"Well Sailor Moon, I must say I'm impressed that you survived that. I have tripled Tesunii power levels and based them upon your fights with Jedite. He may have underestimated you, but I won't. Look around, your friend isn't even here anymore and you are all alone and you won't leave this battle ground alive." Nephlite said with an evil laugh. "Tesunii finish her off quickly, with her death it will make taking out the other Scouts easier."  
  
"Yes Master, with Pleasure." Tesunii said as she formed another ball of energy and laughed evilly.   
  
Sailor Moon whimpered and backed up a bit as she looked around and saw that Tuxedo Mask really wasn't there anymore, except for a large piece of his cape that seemed to be sticking out of a pile of rubble about ten feet away. Tesunii's laugh attracted her attention and she saw that it was powering up another blast. This wasn't looking good at all and she had no clue how to handle the situation. She wanted to go and check on Tuxedo Mask and see if he was alright and if she tried she would die at the hands of this thing before she made it more than a few steps.  
  
"Well Sailor Moon, it's time to die." Nephlite said and motioned for Tesunii to finish the job.  
  
That was when a blast of energy slams into the Youma and sets off the explosion of energy it had been collecting in it's hand. It screams out in shock and Nephlite stays safe behind a shield and growls in anger as he spots the one person he hadn't been able to get a decent read on yet.   
  
"STARFIRE!!" Sailor Moon yells out as she runs over and hugs the girl.  
  
"Idon'tknowwhatiwasgoingtodo,theycameoutofnowhereandattackedfornoreason!Evenmytiaradidn'twork.Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"  
  
"Calm down Sailor Moon, I'll take this thing down and make sure it doesn't hurt anyone ever again." Starfire says. She has no idea how to comfort a crying girl, the idea is totally alien to her.  
  
Sailor Moon steps back and nods, sniffling a little.  
  
"Go and check on Mask to see if he's alright under those rocks."  
  
"Oh my gosh! I nearly forgot about him!" Moon screams and runs over to the pile where his cape is sticking out.  
  
Starfire turned to look at Nephlite and frowned; now where in the world had she seen this doofis before?  
  
The Youma, having survived Starfire's attack and it's own misfired attack and still hadn't been destroyed. It stood up, still standing over nine foot tall, and glared at the little bug that had just tried to kill it. "You are so dead."   
  
"I kind of doubt that." Starfire said as she turned to glare at the over sized monster and the jewel in her tiara started to glow.   
  
Nephlite backed off a bit and hovered higher in the sky as he felt a build up of energy coming from the girl. This one had caused Jedite quite a bit of trouble, literally attacking the blond general and using her bare hands to beat the guy to within an inch of his life. At first he hadn't believed it, but if the power level he was sensing was even a fraction of what she had used against Jedite, he would have to rethink his whole energy gathering plans. Luckily this first attack was just an experiment to see how it would work beyond the planning stages. "Beryl will not be pleased." He muttered under his breath and noticed that Moon had dug her boyfriend out of the rubble and was holding his hand as she tried to wake the guy up.   
  
On the other side of the court Ranma growled as she looked the moronic Youma over and jumped forward just as Tesunii flung a black ball of energy at her. Ranma wasn't sure what it was, but she slammed her food down on the ground and flipped to the side and dodge it before it could hit her. He Tiara flashed and a beam of silver energy fired out and hit the Youma with enough force to mangle it's body. Her grin was visious as the thing screamed in pain and exploded in a wave of dust. Then she slowly looked up at the long haired General and flared her aura to let him know that he was next.  
  
"Starfire!"   
  
Nephlite looked at who had yelled and cursed as he spotted Mars and Mercury standing beside Sailor Moon and they didn't look like they were in a good mood. "Damn it!"  
  
"Come on down and lets finish this." Starfire said.  
  
"We will finish this at another time." He yelled and vanished from sight.   
  
Sighing a little, Ranma walked over to the others. "How is he?" She asked and pointed down at Tuxedo Mask and noticed with some surprise that even with his mask off she couldn't tell who he was. "Anybody know who he is?"  
  
"He has the same kind of cloaking magic that we do Starfire, so unless we see him transform, we can't tell who he is." Mercury said as she scanned the guy.  
  
"What happened?" Mars asked.  
  
"One of Naru's friends was attacked, they seemed to have made it through the battle with only a little damage." Moon said as she looked over at the two unconscious girls. "I'm not sure why Rui isn't waking up though."  
  
Mercury jumped over to the girl and made a quick scan. "It seems that only a tiny bit of her energy was returned when Starfire took out the Youma."  
  
"That thing must have been using all that energy it collected to fight with." Mars said and muttered a few curses under her breath.  
  
"Will she live?" Ranma asked.  
  
Mercury nodded as she started to scan Usagi's friend. "Naru will be fine as well, she's only had tiny bit of her energy taken and will wake up feeling fine."  
  
Starfire sighed. She had thought she might have arrived to late. "That's good."  
  
"Tuxedo Mask on the other hand has taken quite a bit of damage. That first blast must have been something. The amount of damage on this side of the court is almost twice as high as it is on the other side and I'll bet he took a good portion of it to his side and back."  
  
"At least he will live." Starfire muttered and wondered why Moon looked like she was so worried about the guy. "Moon, are you alright?"  
  
Mercury and Mars both turned to look at the blond and saw how worried she looked. "He saved me a couple of times before the fight got so dangerous, I'm just scared he might have been hurt really badly."  
  
"I think he has the same kind of healing abilities we do Sailor Moon, he's just taken quite a beating." Mercury explained as she finished her scans and put the little computer away.  
  
"Did anyone happen to get that guys name?" Starfire asked.  
  
"Why?" Mars asked.  
  
"I could swear I've seen him somewhere before..." Starfire muttered.  
  
"I saw him a couple days ago." Moon said. "That was the same guy that said he was a tennis coach and had a little talk with Rui while she was at practice after school."  
  
Mercury noded and brought her computer out again. "Did he give his name?"  
  
"Um....he said his name was...Sanjouin Masato." Moon said as she bit her lip in consentration.  
  
"What are we going to do now?" Sarfire asked as she paced back and forth with her hands on the back of her head and noted the approaching sounds of sirens in the background.  
  
"We need to get out of here before the police show up or we won't ever make it home." Mars said as she started to hear the sirens as well. "Lets all meet at the shrine..."  
  
"Sorry, I can't go there anymore." Starfire said with a sigh.  
  
Mars blinked and remembered that her Grandfather had kicked Ranma out for refusing to reveal everyone's identity. "Then...we need to meet and talk about this somewhere else."  
  
"What about your place Moon?"  
  
Sailor Moon shook her head. "My parents are home waiting for me to show up like always."  
  
"Mercury?"  
  
The blue haired scout wanted to tell them to forget it, but knew that the chances of her mother being home were actually kind of small. Ever since that Saotome woman had shown up a couple weeks back the two older women had been spending a lot of time together. There had been a couple of nights that her mother didn't even return home unil midnight or more, before getting about four hours sleep and going to work for a twelve hours shift. She didn't mind all the much, the Saotome woman was pretty depressed and had downed more than one bottle of sake while gazing at that postcard she carried with her all the time. "We can meet at my apartment, but we have to be careful if we do."  
  
"Your mother?" Mars asked.  
  
Mercury nodded. "That and my mom's friend has been around the place a lot lately."  
  
"Will that be a problem over the next couple of hours?" Mars asked.  
  
"There shouldn't be, but mom's friend happens to be that woman we ran into yesterday. That red headed woman with the sword and Kimono."  
  
Starfire had to resist the urge to facefault and missed the odd look that Mars shot her. "Then we will have to be as quick as we can."  
  
"Agreed." Mercury said. "Let's get Mask out of here, those sirens are only a couple blocks away now."   
  
"I have to stay here and make sure Naru is alright." Usagi said as she detransformed. "I will have to keep her company, so inform me what happens at the meeting."  
  
Starfire nodded and followed Mercury and Mars as they left the area at a full run and quickly vanished form sight. Usagi sighed, she had been able to tell there was something going on there between Ranma and Rei, but had no clue what it could be. She'd worry about it later, right now she needed to make sure Naru and that other girl were taken care of as the police and couple of ambulances showed up and a crowd started to surround what was left of the Tennis Court. Now all she had to do was lie convincingly enough not to make people suspicious, it was a talent that she did not like and yet had become quite good at over the last few months as Sailor Moon.  
  
**********  
  
Sipping at her coffee, Nodoka kept her emotions calm as she tried to think of a way to solve a couple of mysteries. Yesterday she had seen something that she hadn't expected to see and in her mind she had convinced herself that it was just wasn't possible. Even after everything she had said to her friend about her sone, she hadn't wanted to belive what she already knew to be true. After visiting ancient cities, finding magical items and even being decended from a devil hunter clan, she had managed to fool herself into thinking that certain things were just impossible. But now, after seeing that girl in action for a second time she was absolutely possitive that she was using the Anything Goes system, the same one that Genma claimed wass the most dangerous martial art in the world. She had known about the red headed girl ever since the fight at the Airport, but never allowed herself enough time to really think about her in any detail. Maybe her subconscous mind had tried to protect her from coming to this realization, she just didn't know. Yesterday that had changed when she saw the girl in combat up close and been shocked to discover that she was using advanced forms of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, forms that she had only the vaguest knowledge of, and kicking ass doing it. There should have been only two people in the world that knew that style, Genma and her son, the one that claimed to have turned into a girl while in China. Glancing to the side and looked at the post card again and wondered if the words were true after all, she had read the thing a million times and memorized every word, every crease in the paper. It was the only contact she had ever recieved from her son in over eleven years and was the only proof she had that he was still alive.  
  
Mamma:  
  
I'm sorry to say that I am currently unable to live up to this contract like you wanted due to this little sex changing curse that the old man gave me. Heh, He has his own to deal with as well, so it's for the best. As such, to prevent my death I herby refuse to ever use or acknowledge the Saotome name again or until such time that I believe that it would be safe to use it again. Your ex-son...  
  
Ranma  
  
It was short and to the point and every word of it made her heart burn with a fury that had grown through the years, a fury that she blamed on Genma. That man had ruined her life, runied her sons life, and if her thoughts were right and that red headed girl that looked so much like she did when she was just a teenager, had also managed to turn her son into a girl. She sighed. That girl yesterday had been a high level master of the Art, but her eyes had been empty, as if she belived that she was alone and had no one in the world she could trust. If that girl really was Ranma there would be some adjustments to make, but after eleven years that wouldn't be to hard and with her connections there had to be a cure for her out there somewhere. They hardly knew each other, the biggest problem would be explaining all of Genma's lies. That bastard would have done everything in his power to make Ranma just like him, if that was indeed the case there was no way she could ever get her child back. Male or female, his mind could quite possiblely be so warped by now that the mere sight of her would send him into a rage.   
  
There was a bit of doubt in her though and the more she thought about it the more she hoped that it was true. If she was Ranma, that meant that she wasnt' with Genma anymore and was on her own. Perhapse, with luck Genma's influence over her was no longer as strong as it used to be. She glanced over at her couch where Pink and Link were sleeping and wondered if her instincts had been right about these two girls. They hadn't been up and around all that much since yeasterday and figured that they were exsausted to some degree and hoped they might be able to provide her with some answers. She was a complete stranger to them and knew they probably wouldn't be around the house for very long once they woke up. They had their own plans and goals to accomplish, but a part of her had told her to make sure they survived the encounter with those girls. Over the years she had developed a kind of sixth sense that drew people to her that might be able to help her find her son and that very thing had started humming during her fight with that demon that had named itself Jade and tried to drain them all of energy and kill them all.  
  
The monster was out there still and she had no way to really track its movements, she had come across the thing completely by accident. Perhaps she would get lucky again, but she doubted it, she had more important things to do than hunt down something that wasn't a demon taking a human form. She glanced over at her sword as it hung on the wall across the room and recalled how it had failed to work it's magic and give her the skills needed to fight the thing. It only worked on demons and other forms of undead, that thing had been alive. She was lucky that she carried her shot gun around with her wherever she went, it had saved her life on more than on occation. Only a few minutes before she had finished cleaning and reloading the thing and taken a break.   
  
She stood up and wandered out of the room and headed outside to get the mail, it was late enough in the afternoon that a couple of things she was waiting for should have arrived by now. The sun was setting as she looked up into the sky to see the clouds take on a blood red hue as the last rays of the sun were finally extingished for the day. It was quite a sight and probably the reason she had let her guard down as something grabbed her by the hair and threw her into the air. Reflexes kicked in and Nodoka didn't cry out as she rolled in mid air and landed in a crouch and slid back a couple more feet. She turned to see who had thrown her and gasped as she came face to face with the one man on the planet she would have gladly tortured to death.  
  
Genma Saotome.  
  
He was still a hulking brute of a man and she again questioned what she had ever seen in the man. His dirty white Gi was well worn and stained with sweat and who knew what else as the man pushed his glasses back upon his face and grinned evily at her. "Hello No-chan, long time no see."  
  
Nodoka reached for her sword and realized that she had left it inside the house and that she was almost completely defenceless. "Genma."  
  
"I will make this quick and to the point woman, where is Ranma? Tell me or I will beat you to within an inch of your life."  
  
"I haven't seen him in over ten years, how the hell could I know where he is now you putrid mass of shit?" She asked mildly. Though scared out of her mind, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.  
  
"The boy has vanished and you are the only person he might possibly have come to see, I've made sure he can't go anywhere else. Now where is he, it's been weeks and he doesn't have the skills to survive on his own for this long. That means he had help and that only leaves you. NOW WHERE IS HE?!" Genma bellwed at the top of his lungs.  
  
Nodoka backed up a couple of steps as she felt the power wafting off the man as his Ki swirled around him in an aura that was just one step away from becoming visible. Even back when they had been living together he had never shown this much power before and she wondered if he actually become an even more dangerous fighter over the years. She had thought he was at his peak back then, but it seemed she might have been a little hasty in that assumption. There was no way she could win this battle as it was, all her equipment was in the house or down in the second level basement where she kept her special items and 'He' was in the way.   
  
"I haven't seen my son Genma, you made sure of that as well. If he had come here I would have had him out of the country and into a safe place faster than you can eat."  
  
"Lies!" Genma yelled and Nodoka nodded to herself as she realized that he had been drinking. This kind of act was something that her coward of a husband would never do unless he was possitive he could win or he was to drunk to think straight. His drunkeness had been one of the main reasons she was ever able to get as close to him as she had over the years. That was where that other bastard came in, the one that had kept her from catching up with Genma every time she got close. Gendo Saotome, the family stratagist and criminal. Nodoka shook her head and glared at her 'husband' and wondered what he had in mind.  
  
Genma growled like an animal and launched himself forward and for an instant Nodoka recalled when he had been like this on their wedding night. She had no doubts that he would quite willingly rape her if he felt up to it and ten years on the road had given him a lot of muscle, though the pot belly was a welcome sight as well. It meant that he was just as lazy and dishonorable as he had always been and would need to be punished for what he had done. To bad all he her weapons were still in the house, but she had learned over the years to never go anywhere unarmed. It was to dangerous to do so with Gendo Saotome always keeping an eye on her. She growled and let her anger show a bit and her hand went behind her and reached into the large bow she was wearing with her kimono. Half a blink later she had a small gun out and aimed it at Genma as he bore down on her.  
  
Then she yelled "Die!" And pulled the trigger.  
  
What came out of the gun wasn't what Genma would have expected, Nodoka had been planning to meet her husband for over ten years now she had numerous plans in the works. Her Hold Out gun was an idea she had been using for over five years. Her skills in martial arts and even magic were only low level and she had been forced to depend on the items she used in her job. That was were her gun came from, like her shot gun, this little pistal was magically enhanced to give her the advantage against and unsuspecting opponent. As the bullet left the barrel in a loud bang a wave of magic accompanied it like an air distortion. The bullet grazed the side of Genma's shoulder as he dodged to the side and did little damage, the air distortion on the other hand ran into him with the force of a kick from a horse.  
  
Nodoka grinned as she saw Genma thown back several feet as his shoulder explodes in pain, his Gi ripped to shredds around his arm, and a spray of blood as the wave ripped the wound in his shoulder wide open. He ends up on his back as the echo of the gun shot fades away and takes a second to figure out what has happened and he growls as he sits up and goans in pain. His arm is a mess of small cuts and one deep wound that is sending blood running down his arm and dripping off his elbow to the ground. He turns to glare at his wife and goes into a blind rage as she cocks the gun for another shot. "What is that thing, woman?"  
  
"I use it to fight the demons you and your brother have sent here over the years. It also comes in hand when I'm out on a job for the museum."  
  
Genma staggers to his feet holding his bleeding arm. "If you think something like that will stop me from taking what I want you better think again woman."  
  
"Looks to me like I might have the upper hand her after all." Nodoka said with a grin. She had three more shots to go and if they all hurt him this much she might actually have a chance to destroy this bastard once and for all.  
  
"Don't get your hopes up to much woman, you caught me by surprise once, you won't get a second chance."   
  
"Who's the one standing here bleeding?"  
  
Fury still evident in his eyes, Genma just grinned and stood a little staighter and moved his wounded arm around as if wasn't injured at all. "It will take more than a cut and a little bruising to stop me." His aura flared into the visible spectum, pulsing with a yellow glow that lit up the area.  
  
Cursing silently, Nodoka gripped her gun a bit tighter and aimed it at his chest. "Then we shall see just how much damage you can take!"  
  
Genma crouched a little and grinned.   
  
She pulled the trigger in three fast shots that flew at him in quick order, and watched as Genma fadded from sight and the magically charged bullets flew through the space he had been in just a tenth of a second before. Cursing some ore she tossed the gun away as it's ran out of ammo and pulled long knife out of her sleeve and felt a bit of a chill go down her spine. He was using techniques he had told her were sealed for being to dangerous, but it looked like he had lied about that too. She couldn't remeber the name of this particular move, only that she had no way to defend against it with only her knife as a weapon. "Where are you?!"  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Said Genma's disembodied voice.   
  
She couldn't trace it to where it might have come from, but she figured he would nearby attempting to frighten her and ambush her. She had learned a few knife fighting techniques when she had been training to become a devil hunter, so she flailed about for a few seconds trying to hit him at random and backing away from where she had been standing. Then a flash of movemet caught her eye and there was a sharp pain in her wrist as the knife was knocked away and she was thrown to the ground. She lands hard and turns to get up just as Genma reappears standing above her, she gasps and starts to crawl away. Genma just stands there looking like he's about to kill her and she hopes that she can at least get away. Rolling to her feet she reached up to the bun where her long redish brown hair was wound up on her head and pulled out a couple of longer than normal hair needles. Her hair fell down her back in a wave as she took up defensive position and glared at Genma.  
  
They were her last resort weapons and the ones that she would use to make sure she had a chance to get out of a situation like this. She snarled and moved, using what little training she had with these weapons, to get into a position where she could strike this man that she hated with all her soul. She went for his eyes, about the only place that the needles would do any kind of damage. He was quite drunk and now angry, she hopped that it would give her enough of an advantage that could at least shove one of the neeedles through his ear and into his brain. In the next insant she knew she was in trouble as she realized that he was so drunk that he wasn't even bothering to hold back like he always did. His after image just wafted away even as his fist impacted her gut and sent her crashing to the ground with a cry of pain.  
  
"Where...Punch...Is...Punch...He?!" Genma screamed as he held Nodoka by her air and screamed in her face, punching her with every word. A calm, logical part of Nodoka's mind wondered when he had develped that insane glint in his eyes and then dismissed it as irrelivent because she was about to die and knew it.  
  
"What this? Over."  
  
"Yes, what fat man do with nice lady. Over."  
  
Genma's head turned to look behind him and he spotted Pink and Link standing nearby giving him a rather cruel look. They had a pair of Scimitars out and were ready to attack him. "Stay out of something that is not your buisness or you will join her next."  
  
"Fat man no know when up against womans of Amazon Tribe?" Pink said with and evil grin. "You learn hard way. Over."  
  
Genma tossed Nodoka to the ground and stands up, flaring his Ki just enough to show these girls whos the leader around her. "Leave, or die."   
  
"Fat man smell like he need more beer." Link said as she pinched her nose. "Over."  
  
"Girls, run, he's a monster you can't beat..." Nodoka tried to warn them, but it came out in a gurrgle of noise through her broken nose.  
  
Snorting, Genma hunched over and vanished from sight right before the girls got to him. They didn't have long to wait for his attack though as their weapons shatter in their hands and they were kicked the length of the yard. Pink and Link didn't stand a chance against him as slammed into the house with enough force to crater the wall with their bodies and they slipped and fell to the ground unconscious even as Genma was dismissing them and turned back to his 'wife'. "Now, woman, tell me what I want to know or I will start breaking your bones one at a time."  
  
"I-I don't know..." Nodoka moaned out in fear and tried to crawl away.  
  
Her hair was grabbed and used to drag her back and Genma snarled in her hear, the stink of hard liquer wafting about him as if he had bathed in the stuff. "WHERE?!"  
  
Then to her surprise, Genma gave a grunt and was almost catapulted across the yard. He only gasped in shock at the attack and managed to twist around in mid air and bounce off the gate and launch himself into the air to survey what was attacking him. The yard was clear as far as he could tell, but there was someone here with quite a bit of power and it certainly wasn't these weak and useless women that were keeping him from finding his son. He landed and shouted. "Whoever did that just signed their death warrent, get out here and face me like a man and not a coward!"  
  
"HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" Came a laugh that sent a chill of fear through Genma's spine. He turned as white as a sheet as he traced the laugh to the roof of the house and saw the Demon he and Soun had killed over ten years ago. Happosai was crouched in the shadows, his form barely vissible except for his glowing white eyes as they glared at him. The small old man moved forward and glared down at his former student and grinned as he puffed on is pipe and blew some panty shaped smoke rings. "Hello Genma, long time no see."  
  
"You!" Genma growled. "You are no match for me now old man, I've learned tricks and techniques that you can't possibly have counters for. I will make sure you stay dead this time."   
  
"You haven't even been alive fifty years Genma, my ex-student, what makes you think I taught you everything about my school?"  
  
Genma growled.  
  
"You aren't even a licenced teacher for Anything Goes, you were never able to pass my test. What makes you think you have a chance to now?"  
  
"What are you doing here?" Genma yelled.  
  
Happosai cackled. "Why to see you of course, do you think I would just let you get away with trying to kill me without getting a bit of revenge?"  
  
Genma flared his aura and fired a beam of Ki at Happosai so fast that he was nothing bit a blur. "I'll kill you first!"   
  
The old man just continued to smoke his pipe and glare as the Ki blast hit him and blew a large hole in the roof of the house. The smoke of the explosion quickly disappated as Happosai jumped down off the roof and tapped his pipe out. He glanced over at the three women and narrowed his eyes as he wondered what had happened to the student he had trained a decade before. He had heard of a persons personality changing, but this was a bit much to believe. At one point in time Genma had almost been as head over heals in love with Nodoka over there that the two had been all but inseperatble. What he had just witnessed was like night and day compared to what he remembered of Genma. "Genma, Genma, Genma even after ten years of training and you still make the same mistakes? You were always kind of pathetic, but that shot was probably the most inelegant and screwed up use of Ki I have ever seen."  
  
Genma turned even whiter as he turn around and ran from the property as if all the demons of hell were on his tail. Happosai sighed as he twirled his pipe and wondered for a second if he should follow the moron and decided against it. It was pretty rare that he was on the side of light, so to speak, but Nodoka and those two chinese cuties over there needed to be 'nursed' back to health and he was just the man to do the job. Grinning he hopped over to Nodoka and examined her a bit to see how well Genma had worked the woman over. He winced at the amount of blood on the woman's face, but it was from a broken nose so it just looked worse than it was and the rest was just severe bruising. He had treated himself for such inujuries enough times that he had the process for fixing it down to an art. He noticed that she was also semi-conscious now and used that to his advantage as he tapped a presure point on her chest to deaden her body of pain and copped a feel at the same time.   
  
Even as he was tapping the point his other hand reached out and reset her nose with a crunch. The blood flow stopped almost completely a few seconds later as he tapped a second set of points and prodded her Ki paths into sending healing Ki throughout her body to fix up the buises that covered her body. She wasn't a well trained martial artist, but the fact that she even had Ki paths to manipulate kind of surprised him, but he would worry about that later. Picking her up he hopped over to the house in one high jump and quickly carried her inside lay her on the couch. A quick search of the house let him find her room and she was placed in her own bed a few seconds later. Then he moved out to check on the two down teens, they had just taken quite a blow to the back and from what he could see they had taken the hard landing like well trained martial artists.  
  
Within minutes they were all inside the house and in bed sleeping off what Genma had done to them in his drunken stupper. Happosai shook his head, Genma was a theif and con man, but that cold blooded killer was something all together different. Genma's aura has been amped up to the max during that fight and Happosai had to admit that the boy's Ki blast had been impressive even with all the flaws he had spotted in it's creation. He figured Genma had stolen it from someone at some point or coppied a move that he saw and tried to add it to his own list of techniques and it had backfired on him. Happosai hopped up on the table, filled his pipe, and sat down to think over what he was going to do next. That was when he spotted the post card sitting on the table and picked it up to see if it might hold some clue to this mystery of his, and to snoop of course.  
  
"Changed into a girl..." Happosai muttered. "That moron went to Jusenkyo. I wonder what kind of curse Genma has?"  
  
**********  
  
To Be continued...  
  
End Notes - Well after a long period of fighting my Writers Block I have managed to get this chapter finished up and sent out. This is a miracle if you ask me, I thought I'd never get it done to tell you the truth. I took forever and even when I got the first draft done I had to go back and hack off the ending because it was way to close to the original battle in the Anime so I amped it up and added more Ranma to the mix, I couldn't let Usagi do everything and with Ranma there things will be changing for the Scouts here pretty soon.   
  
A couple chapters back I had a fight with Genma and that Ninja and now Genma is terrorizing Nodoka, so I bet you are asking yourself what is going on? Well I won't reveal all, but as this is a Sailormoon crossover I decided to alter Genma's history a bit. Its only a side story and a bit darker than expected, but he has some issues to work out and leave it at that. He absolutely refuses to believe that he was the one at fault for Jusenkyo and has lied to himself so much that he actually believes it now. Ranma and Genma will have a reconing, but it's a ways off yet and will end with surprise ending that I have in mind. (Now just how long will it take me to actually reach the end?) I've actually been considering cutting or reducing the size of the rainbow crystal arc, but that mostly deals with Zoicite so I don't know just yet.   
  
*Saionji Rui - http://www.tcp.com/doi/smoon/dict/dict-4.html (it took me a couple of hours to find this girl last name)   
  
*Hand Signals - http://www.millenniumsend.com/user/pender/articles/hands.html I can't say all of these will be used by the scouts, but this kind of what Ami looked up on the internet and a few of them will apply to the girls as the story continues. Giving them some depth and more characterization. Ranma will know most of these already, having spent a little time with the Japanese armed forces learning from one of the teachers during the training trip. Giving her knowledge in other areas one wouldn't normally expect.  
  
**********  
  
Small Omake  
  
The stars flicker around him as the power of his spell goes off and begins to form into a picture of light. Nephlite is surprise when the energy begins to waver, but he frowns and adds more power to it and forces the spell to work and within seconds he is looking at a picture of a teen aged girl with long, light brown hair done up in a pony tail and a competitive spirit. She is dressed in a tennis outfit and holding a tennis racquet in mid swing. The nature of the spell isolates a person and identifies them for him and he grins evilly and laughs as he is given the name *Rui Saionji.  
  
"Rui Sainji you are about to aid me in my mission with your very life!" Nephlite said with a patented evil villain laugh.  
  
He let the spell go and the room returned to normal, it had even given him the girl's location. All he had to do was go and get her and everything would be perfect by this time tomorrow. On the way to the front door he transformed his clothes into a suit and taking on his Sanjouin Masato identity, adjusting his sports jacket and grabbing his keys. He flung the door open and leaped into the air...and landed in a massive face plant right in the middle of the driveway, skidded ten feet until he finally collapsed into the grass laying on his side and groaning. Thanking all the gods that Zoicite hadn't been there to see it happen.  
  
The sprinklers turned on and instantly soaked him, the broken one by his head popped up a second later and shot him in the crotch.  
  
"Owie."  
  
Next time he would remember to get the car before jumping off the porch.  
  
**********  
  
Yeah, that was it! 


	12. Chapter 10 Revised

Notes - Well it's been a few months since this was updated last, but I had to take a break before I burned out completely. As I'm doing with all my fics this chapter is considerably smaller than I've been doing lately. For some reason I can do a quick 40 to 60kb in a matter of days, but anything longer than that and I start to slow down. Normally this wasn't a problem, but lately it has been, so I shorted my chapter lengths to post more often. What a lot of people have been wanting anyway.  
  
^_^  
  
**********  
  
Princess of the Moon  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Cory D. Rose  
  
ertle2@msn.com  
  
http://shi_hanna.tripod.com  
  
(c) 2003  
  
**********  
  
Time plays tricks on people when they aren't paying attention; this has been proven time and time again over the ages. They can spend hours working on something and they barely notice the time and yet have the exact opposite happen, making a few minutes seem like hours. This is exactly what Ranma was noticing as she looked at a nearby window and realized that the sun was going down. Somehow she had managed to wander around Juban for most of the day and barely noticed that time was slipping by. There were still cars moving around the streets and she figured she was in one of the newer sections of the district and if she was reading one of the nearby signs correctly, on the opposite side of the district from where she had been heading in the first place. There were cars and tall buildings everywhere she looked, streets filled with people and no sign of some place where she could just sit down and take a few minutes to rest a bit.  
  
Chaotic was a good description for Tokyo, no matter where one went they were always going to find over crowding and urban sprawl, as his old man had called it, when they had passed through Tokyo a few years back. As she looked around to try and figure out exactly where she was, she felt like that jerk Ryoga for a few seconds and shuddered. The moron would cause her problems even when he wasn't around to cause them in the first place. She spotted a bench sitting in front of an old building that looked like it wouldn't fall apart if she sat down. It only took a few seconds to walk over and sit down with a loud sigh of relief. Her feet hurt from spending the morning running from Nerima to Juban, then most of the day taking care of a few things, only to then have to fight that battle at the tennis courts against the newest Dark Kingdom General and newest king of pet pocket monsters these people seemed to like using.   
  
She stretched out a bit, resting her arms along the back of the bench and recalled the fight once more. Usagi's skill had surprised her. The girl was a hopeless klutz, but that hadn't shown much after she had transformed into Sailor Moon, the girl's luck seemed to be legendary even before she became a scout according to some of the girls she'd talked to at school. That made her think of the transformation itself. Time and again she had analyzed the transformation and continued to be baffled by it and just what happened when she became that other person. The magic was a rush unlike anything Ranma had ever experienced. Like a drug really, feeling as if pure power flowed into her body and set all her nerve endings on fire as she was pulled into a storm of ecstasy that just couldn't be described. She had only transformed a few times now and Ranma feared the day when she began to look forward to using her magic. Ito still wouldn't explain just why that happened to her when she transformed either. Even more interesting was the fact that the cat seemed to shy away from the subject as if it was something she didn't want to talk about or was afraid of. From what she had been able to figure out from listening to the other girls at the meetings, they didn't experience that or they just accepted it as part of the job.   
  
Ranma refused to just give in to the alien feelings that filled her when she transformed, but had come to conclusion that she might be going about things in the wrong way. It wouldn't have been the first. Being a girl gave her the willies ever time she had to use the bathroom. It was a constant reminder of her failure to achieve a sworn promise made between 'him' and 'his' mother. Yet another aspect of her life that brought her nothing but regret and shame. She clenched her teeth in anger and failed to notice as a crescent moon formed on her forehead and a wave of electricity seemed to flow over her body for a second, scaring several admirers that were spying on her from nearby buildings. They all made a quick get away thinking she was going to turn on them. She sighed and focused as she realized that her power was surging again, demanding that she release it in a wave of destruction. Her iron will went to work and within a few seconds the electricity stopped and left a bit of smoke rising off of her clothing as the crescent moon faded from sight   
  
That was one of her main problems at the moment. Her powers were acting up as they grew stronger and stronger. In fact that moron Ryoga had come very close to dying one of the first times it happened. The power surges were infrequent, but strong enough to be noticed when she went into battle and didn't transform and have to experience all that other stuff that bothered her. Her emotions seemed to be what triggered them too and it reminded her of that scroll she had given to Rei's grandfather a few months earlier. The one that described how emotions could affect a persons Ki level, augmenting it. Somehow her emotions were the cause of the surges but she didn't really understand how they were doing it. Ki and Magic were two different forms of energy. She had tons of magic to call on when she transformed enough to blow up cars and slice buildings in half if she put her mind to it. Just like Ami could freeze something and shatter it into a million pieces with a simple kick. Like dipping an object in liquid nitrogen really. Heh, barely any schooling and she could remember facts like that.  
  
Now that she thought about it a little she realized that Ami and Rei hadn't been at the battle against that thing until it was over. That bothered Ranma too. They were a team and the only person Usagi had been able to trust at the beginning of the fight was that dork Tuxedo Mask. The guy ran around like a pansy throwing flowers like he was some kind of weirdo. He had his uses though, Ranma had to admit that, when he was around Usagi tried harder and seemed to be stronger than when he wasn't around. A reaction Ranma had to admit she didn't understand in the least little bit. That was a bit of a mystery as well. If that wasn't strange enough she now had to deal with something she had been trying to ignore for nearly a year now; her Mother. They had only met once and Ranma hadn't felt like introducing herself at the time, this was the woman that came up with the suicide contract after all. That contract kept her from fully trusting the woman. Something about her just seemed to call out to her on an almost subconscious level though and it told her to give her a chance.   
  
If there was one thing Ranma didn't like to do it was change her mind about something. She couldn't recall the number of times she had seen a guy promise one thing and turn out to be something completely different. Usually when they were trying to get revenge on her old man for stealing something. Be nice, get close, and attack when they weren't expecting it. It was almost a law of nature. She sighed, and leaned forward so that her elbows were on her knees. Feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to get anything done if she continued to think like this. It was a habit she had picked up after getting the curse, before it happened she would never have thought of stuff like this. She would have just fought for the fun of it and ignored everything else. She needed to make a decision about her mother and stick with it to see if there was a chance that she might actually be able to live a decent life. There was no way in hell she would ever have a normal life, she was had pissed off to many people.  
  
She rolled to her feet and stretched a little and looked around to get her bearings, then spotted an alley across the street and a fence running along side it. It was of the normal type a person would find all over Tokyo, standing only six feet high and had a board running along top of it to keep the thing from hurting people if they happened to land on top of it from a fall. She ran a few steps and launched herself over the oncoming traffic in a graceful flip and touched down on top of the fence with one foot, leaned forward at just the right angle and started to run down the fence all in one motion.   
  
Then ignored the sound of crashing cars behind her as she ran and just grinned. This was one of the things she loved to do the most and her new body had a sense of balance that rivaled her male one quite a bit. As she ran she cleared her mind and tried to think of nothing but running as fast as she could. The occasional streets that came along every few minutes was just ignored as she jumped over it to the next section of fence and when that ran out she went to the next best thing, roof hopping with a big grin on her face as she startled a couple making out in a back yard swing as she flew over them in a graceful leap.  
  
**********  
  
Inside Nephlite's mansion, he was sitting in his chair as it floated within the Star Chamber. He crossed his legs and seemed to glare at the very air around him as he tried to think of the best way to change his current plans without upsetting everything he had put in place after he took over from Jedite and his giant debacle. His first try had been a dismal failure in his opinion. All the energy he'd collected had been taken back by that girl once his Youma was defeated and to top that those two Scouts had survived that battle with no injuries to speak of. It was rather irritating really. He was half tempted to punish himself for allowing it to happen in the first place and wasting some of his precious energy. A General did not make mistakes, they learned and they planned their every step until they succeeded. The last ten thousand years within the Dark Kingdom had been one long wait as they all spent years learning how to perfect their powers and hold their positions of power.  
  
Of the four Generals that commanded Queen Beryl's Youma armies he had been considered to be third in command. Over time their rank had stopped meaning anything though and the top General eventually turned out to be the one that the Queen favored the most and until recently Jedite had held that position. His complete and utter failure to achieve his ends had been his downfall. Nephlite was quite sure that the failure had been due to the fact that Jedite had spent so much time at the top that they lost the very skills that had brought him to the top in the first place.   
  
Only there at the end when that red haired Scout had shown up and started challenging him did Jedite begin to take the first steps at becoming his old self once more. He had even gone so far as to open one of the ancient armories and took up one of legendary pain blades. That had been a surprise that even the powerful Kunzite hadn't expected. Jedite had always been a schemer and could talk his way into and out of any situation given enough time, but over the years he'd forgot nearly as much as he had known when they took these positions.   
  
He was positive that the answer to his problem was just within his grasp, there had to be a way to accomplish his plans without wasting more energy than he used or lost if the operation failed. The only problem was that the energy he needed was being siphoned off to feed Queen Metallia within her prison and that left very little for the General's to use. He needed an alternate power source of some kind to fuel his campaign while he sent all the life energies on to Queen Beryl. There had to be a way to do this, he had access to his dark magic abilities and even his Astrological abilities that were always put to good use. He leaned back and his floating chair adjusted its balance to keep him from rolling over backwards and falling to the floor. After using the thing for hundreds of years Nephlite didn't even notice. He just knew that there had to be an answer to the dilemma.  
  
Several ideas flew through his mind in a matter of moments and they were all shot down because they required him to use up more of his dwindling supply of energy. The first one he ruled out was to do what Jedite had been doing, to suck a large number of people dry and use that to fuel his next plan, but if it didn't work for Jedite it certainly wouldn't work for him and Queen Beryl would want most of the energy anyway. The second one was to contact another powerful entity of some kind and get their aid, but he ruled that one out instantly. Those kinds of deals were never one way and he would most likely end up dead because of it. Then another idea popped into his and it seemed to have plenty of merit and he knew it would work. To get to the items he would need would mean finding away to overcome certain obstacles along the way. Power is never free.   
  
Kunzite loved that saying. Over the centuries Nephlite figured the guy had said it a couple hundred thousand times at least. Of all the Generals Kunzite was the strongest in terms of power and ability, but he didn't really play the power games that him and Jedite played with Queen Beryl and hadn't ever taken the lead position in her good graces unless something happened to knock him and Jedite from the position, which is why Jedite had gone first. Zoicite, the flaming weenie, was joined at Kunzite's hip and the two rarely did anything without the other, though Zoi tended to be just a little bit vindictive when a plan failed or he didn't get his way. Nephlite didn't really care though, a few centuries back he had played a series of practical jokes on the fruit and they had been mortal enemies ever since. Even Kunzite had gotten a laugh from some of Zoicite's new and innovative looks. Though he winced as the image of Zoicite dressed in drag flashed across his mind and how the guy had strutted around like that for several days, actually enjoying it. That part of the joke had back fired completely.  
  
He shook his head and tried to get back to his energy problem and stared up at the ceiling of the chamber. He had used his magic to make it show him what the night sky looked like without the atmosphere in the way and the sight of billions of twinkling stars just relaxed him every time he looked at them. Then his chair seemed to spin around, with the night sky shining down on him from every angle, and he got a good look at the place he had though of just a few seconds ago. The Moon. The gray ball of dust was still in the same position as it had been ten thousand years before, give or take a mile or two, and even to this day he knew that some of the protective magic still functioned there. Over the centuries is had begun to fail because there was no one there to keep it maintained, but there was something in the vault below the ancient palace that would give him the power to do what he wanted and so much more.  
  
Standing up Nephlite appeared to float in mid air as he held up his hand and stars started forming a pattern around the room. He held up his hand and narrowed his eyes as he performed his tracking incantation. "All the world is ruled by the stars, from the lowly animal to the greatest of hunters, the stars rule them all and know the tiniest of details!" Nephlite says as he begins to glow, his eyes lose their irises and turn pure black with an unearthly glow. "Now Archer Sagittarius, guide my power and point me to the location of the Kingdom of the Moon!! Show Me NOW!"  
  
His voice echoes throughout the chamber as the whole place lights up and for a moment it appears as if the stars themselves are moving. The illusion seems to gain even more detail as the moon began to grow bigger and bigger as he watched, until it filled over half the room and took on a three dimensional detail. Nephlite stared at the moon's surface with his cruel eyes, waiting until the illusion begins to show the ruins of what was once the most powerful kingdom in the last fifty thousand years. He was surprised and a bit delighted to find that the palace is still intact, though everything else around it seems to have collapsed into rubble. Fallen columns litter the landscape and he briefly recalls when wave after wave of Youma stomped their way through the small city that had surrounded the Palace. Crushing everything in their path, toppling columns and desecrating the most beautiful city ever created by magic alone.  
  
Good memories indeed, the seven shadows had been the most devastating as they managed to kill everything in their path as they swept across the city in a rain of destruction. Reaching out he tapped the image of the palace and it grew still more until it filled the room and it appeared as if he was hovering in the air above the Moon's surface. The level of detail was astounding, even to him, but he ignored that as he maneuvered the image to one spot within the palace. Slowly manipulating the picture to move down dust filled hallways and court yards full of rubble. Something about the image bothered him, but he couldn't tell what it was. Everything seemed to look just like he remembered from the last time he had walked the cursed grounds. Even in death the place still glittered here and there. After a few seconds he maneuvered the image into the throne room where Queen Serenity had ruled over them all and focused in on the east wall. His memory was dim, but he would never forget about the East Wall Room where the entrance to the Moon Kingdom Vault was located.   
  
Getting there would be a challenge, but a Youma or two placed in the correct positions and he would be able to get what he wanted. He grinned as the picture focused in on a crystal door that looked as impressive now as it did the day it was put up. The glowing crescent moon that covered the top half of the door proved that there was still working magic within the palace. He would have to be careful when he got there though, if the magic still worked then the wards and magical protections did as well. Queen Serenity had been the one to imprison him and the rest of the Dark Kingdom with the Silver Crystal right when they were on the verge of a total victory.   
  
There was no way he could just teleport up there, like he used to do, and grab what he wanted. Serenity had placed them within a pocket dimension where getting the energy to get out would be nearly impossible, but she knew it would have to happen eventually and he figured there might be some unexpected magical defenses waiting for him if he tried. After ten thousand years of imprisonment every living thing within the Dark Kingdom had adjusted to the pocket dimension and were now far too dependent on it for their very survival. Just to enter into Tokyo used up a lot of energy that they could use for other things. Heck most of the energy was dolled out to them in small weekly rations that had to be horded like gold.  
  
Over the centuries he and the other Generals had slowly saved up a huge cache of energy. They had all set it up to make it work for them in the form of wards to protect them from each other. While in Tokyo those wards didn't work as well as they should have, which is why Mars' paper wards had worked on Jedite at the airport. Most of their energy was devoted to keeping them from dying the instant they crossed over into this dimension. There was a high level of energy in certain parts of Tokyo and if he was to leave these areas he would die within minutes. Teleporting to the moon was easy; surviving once he arrived with no extra energy to call on would be fatal. Then there would be whatever magical protection Queen Serenity set up in those last minutes of the battle. Or were to activate if she died of unnatural causes.  
  
There had to be a way for him to leave the area, if he could figure that out then he could go and get the energy he needed from outside Tokyo where there would be no Scouts to disrupt his plans. A bit of movement seemed to catch his eye and he looked up and noticed that the image he was looking at was moving out of the throne room and down a hallway he had been avoiding earlier, for it held secrets he did not want to relive. Moving faster than he could stop it, the image flew across the palace in the blink of an eye and stopped at the one place he didn't want to see in all the universe. His old quarters from when he had been a guest of the court ten millennia before. He growled as he tried to get the image to leave the room, but it wouldn't budge as he glared around the room and started to get very angry.  
  
"WHO IS DOING THIS?! ZOICITE! I KNOW YOU ARE DOING THIS!" He screamed. "COME HERE AND SHOW YOURSELF!!"  
  
After a few seconds Zoicite didn't show up to gloat like the little fairy would have done under normal circumstances just for riling him up like this and letting off that piercing shriek laugh of his. He turned back to the scene and gasped as it moved further into the room and appeared to look around for a second. Then suddenly, as real as if he was actually there, he shuddered violently as he spotted a painting on the wall of the Princess of Jupiter herself wearing a light green dress and the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. For just and instantly he remembered what it was like to hold her in his arms, what she felt like, even what she had smelled like in those last moments.   
  
He groaned as he recalled his last act of love, disemboweling her during the battle as if she was a horse that had to be put down. Then spending several hours laughing about it with Jedite a few days later after they had started to realize they had been exiled to hell by Serenity the Bitch Queen. He staggered forward to try and touch the picture, to rip it from the wall, and never have to remember those actions ever again. But the scene suddenly shifted just as his hand was about to grasp the picture frame and seemed to pull him across the room where his dresser appeared to have stood for the last ten thousand years. There were a couple of pictures sitting on top of it with a very fine coating of dust touching their frames. His mother and father smiled up at him as they sat upon their horses. He recalled in a flash of memory that the picture had been taken during the after math of a chariot race where they had won the right to have him trained in magic. The first member of their family to have that right in close to ten generations at least.  
  
"STOP THIS NOW! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER!" He screamed and fell to his knees with a growl of frustration.  
  
The scene shifted once again and he was forced to stand as the scene shifted to the closed and was given a glimpse of his old uniform. The one that proclaimed him as a master of Astrology Magic and the red shoulder tassels that told everyone that saw it that he had graduated first in his class from the university of magic. He staggered around as if punched in the gut when a thousand memories and emotions hit him all at the same time. No longer seeing the illusion that he had created or that it was shattering all around him as he struggled to keep control, breaking into billions of little glowing crescent moon shaped bits of light that seemed to vanish on a nonexistent gust of wind after only a couple of seconds.   
  
With his hands pressed to his eyes he tried to flee the chamber at a dead run, but in mid step he tripped over his own feet and slammed head first onto the floor with a loud splat. He just lay there as his mind seemed too suddenly call up the image of a red haired girl in a black gown with diamond covered hair attachments that sparkled as she moved about the room as the two of them danced and laughed. Then the scene changed and she was kicking him in the nuts for some reason and the fire in her eyes as the blow landed was almost familiar as he remembered the incident from so long ago. It made him shudder a little as he lay there.  
  
Then the incident seemed to slip from the grasp of his mind, leaving behind only the look of almost manic glee in the girl's bright blue eyes, glowing with power and excitment.  
  
**********  
  
With a rather large book sitting on her knees, Ami sat back on the park bench and enjoyed the slight breeze as it ruffled her school uniform. The sun was glinting off her glasses as she occasionally turned a page and enjoyed the sounds of the animals and kids as they played around in the background. She loved to study here and took the opportunity to do so whenever she could because it had been constructed in such away to be as peaceful as possible. She had to strain to hear the sounds of the city all around her, the honking of horns, the wail of a siren, or even a loud motorcycle or two as they passed by. She checked her watch and noticed that it was about time for her friends to start showing up. Then glanced behind her just as Rei dragged a yawning Usagi into the park by the bow on the front of her uniform.  
  
They still hadn't had a chance to talk about the fight that had happened the day before because Ranma had ran off and Usagi had been to tired to explain anything after the battle. She'd just went home and went straight to bed before anyone could say anything, much to Rei's annoyance. Ami hadn't minded all that much at the time; she'd been right in the middle of a good book when Usagi had called for her. Getting from her apartment to the school could take close to forty five minutes if she didn't take the bus like she normally did. Even transformed into Sailor Mercury it hat taken her close to ten minutes to get there running at full speed. Rei lived even further away than that and they had both managed to get there at the end of the battle and see the destruction of the whole tennis court.  
  
It still amazed her just how much damage Ranma seemed to do when she fought someone. Walls were shattered; the ground caved in, and blast craters all of the place with rubble piled shoulder high in places. Rei had commented on the fact that Ranma had left her signature all over the place and if she wasn't careful she would start to develop a reputation. The comment had been meant as an insult, but Ranma had just laughed it off before she left. Which kind of worried them. On top of that Rei was starting to complain about Usagi for some reason, it was just weird. Ami was beginning to think it was just a quirk of Rei's personality because she had always been complaining about Ranma as well. That thought brought up something that had been bothering the three of them for a few days now.  
  
All they had to do was mention Ranma's name and Rei would start cussing up a storm. It seemed that with Ranma kicked out of the shrine Rei was being forced to do all the normal chores and a number of extras because her grandfather had grounded her. Rei's grandfather's reaction was another subject they had all learned not to mention around the dark haired shrine maiden. He had been acting really strange lately and no one could figure out what was on his mind. Rei finally arrived as she finished pulling Usagi over by the bow on the front of her uniform and pushed the blond towards the bench. Ami scooted over as they sat down. She knew they wouldn't want to study while they were here so she started to put her things away. Luckily it was only her chemistry homework; she was ahead in the class and didn't want to fall behind. Her recent activities had really made her rethink her study schedule.   
  
"Are you studying again?!" Usagi asked in shock as she adjusted her bow and glared at Rei, who was smirking innocently.  
  
"Of course." Ami said with a nod. "I was just waiting for everyone to show up."  
  
"I can't understand how you can do that when there is a clear sky out and a park to explore." Usagi muttered.  
  
"I enjoy it."   
  
Now Rei was giving her and incredulous look.  
  
"I do."  
  
"Humph!" Usagi muttered and yawned again.  
  
"I've never been to this park before." Rei said as she looked around. "This place is incredible."  
  
"It's my favorite place to study." Ami explained.  
  
"Just how big is this park?" Usagi asked as she tried to see through the nearby trees and suddenly jumped to her feet. "Is that a LAKE?!"  
  
Ami nodded. "Yeah, they rent boats to couples."  
  
"What a great idea!" Usagi squealed and bounced around a little.  
  
Rei just rolled her eyes. "Are we going to talk about what we really came her for?"  
  
"I was hoping to know what happened yesterday as well, I didn't get a chance to enter it into my computer like I did with all the other battles." Ami said as she reached into her bag and pulled out the Mercury computer and flipped it open.  
  
Usagi slumped and glowered at them. "I won, isn't that good enough?"  
  
"MEATBALL BRAIN! WE WEREN'T THERE, WE HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, IT MIGHT BE IMPORTANT! THE NEWEST GENERAL WAS THERE AND YOU SAW HIM!" Rei screeched.  
  
"Calm down Rei, there's no need to yell." Ami muttered. "Should we wait for Ranma to get here? She said she would stop by and talk to us."  
  
"Yep." Ranma said from right behind Rei.  
  
The dark haired girl screamed and jumped up off the bench gasping for breath. "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM!? I'M GONNA..."  
  
Ranma smirked as she gave Rei a look. "You know screaming about the newest General at the top of your lungs could cause a few problems."   
  
Rei gaped for a few seconds before blushing and looking away.  
  
Taking a deep breath Ranma gave each of them a look before muttering. "I have to say I'm sorry for the way I've been acting lately. I've been acting like a real jerk for the last couple of weeks and I don't want it cause any problems between us."  
  
By now Rei was gaping at Ranma.  
  
"That's quite alright Ranma." Ami said with a smile and hoped things would work out after all.  
  
Usagi just dove forward and hugged Ranma with a death grip and sniffled a bit. "That was so perfect!"  
  
A shiver went up Ranma's back as she tried to crawl up the back of the bench to get away, but no one could get away from the Usagi over emotional grip of death. "Eh!"  
  
Rei just snorted. "So just why were you being such a jerk?"  
  
"Well a couple of reasons really, the biggest one is that none of you are trained like I am."  
  
"You've said that before and I still think its total BS." Rei snapped. "When we transform we gain a powerful weapon and the speed and skill to use it."  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yes you do and to be blunt you don't know how to use even that correctly."  
  
"WHY YOU LITTLE..." Rei growled out and went to choke Ranma.  
  
"Calm down Rei." Ami said, playing peace maker again.   
  
Rei turned her glare on Ami.  
  
"Now if you will let me finish?" Ranma growled back. "Rei you use fire, but you have to focus so much to fire it off that you leave yourself open to attack for a almost three to four seconds, long enough for someone fast to get close and really hurt you. I don't want that to happen to any of you.  
  
Usagi sniffled again and Ranma took a couple of seconds to pry her hands off her waist and sat Usagi down beside her.  
  
"It's a weakness that can be exploited Rei. You completely stop and take up an unguarded position and leave yourself open to attack. It could get you killed." Ranma said as she looked at her friend.   
  
"I'm the same way." Ami muttered as she considered what Ranma was saying. The red head just nodded.   
  
"You all are. Usagi here has the quickest attack of the three of you and she still has to take a few seconds to power up her tiara and throw it. That's my biggest problem and why I got mad. As your leader I'm responsible for your safety when we fight as a group, and I want to see if we can train to make the attacks faster and more powerful. I don't think we have even come close to achieving our full strength attacks yet. I can feel that my own attack has gotten stronger over the last few weeks. I think all of you can do the same with a bit of training."  
  
"We were talking about doing just that at the last meeting Ranma." Ami said. "We discussed starting small and learning some hand signals and how to work better as a team."  
  
"Good idea, the team practice will keep you from shooting each other."   
  
"Hey! We aren't that bad!" Rei snapped.  
  
"Zzzz..." Usagi said as she started to snore.  
  
Ranma give her a weird look. "I see she's still the same."   
  
Rei and Ami just sighed loudly.   
  
"When do you guys want to start practicing?"   
  
"Can we do it on weekends? Say once a week for three or four hours?" Ami suggested.  
  
"I don't know, I was thinking more along the lines of an hour or two per day." Ranma muttered.  
  
"OUT OF THE QUESTION!" Rei snapped. "We will practice on Sundays from noon till around three or four."  
  
"Alright, but I want you all too at least spend an hour a day going over anything you learn in the once a week sessions."   
  
"I can do that." Ami said. "We meet at the shrine all the time; we can turn it into a game to get Usagi to play along."  
  
"That sound fine." Ranma agreed with a nod.  
  
"Have you found a place to stay yet Ranma?" Rei asked and looked away.  
  
The red head just raised her eyebrows a little; she could never read other peoples moods unless they were pissed off beyond all reason. "Sorta."  
  
"What's that mean?" Rei snapped again and glared. She hated these half assed answers that didn't give any detail at all.  
  
They glared at each other for a second.  
  
"Well last night I was heading back to where I've been camping out when I ran across this old fart. He stole my bra."  
  
"WHAT?!" Rei yelled again.  
  
"Rei would you stop yelling, half the people in the park are giving you the eye." Ranma said with a smirk and pointed to several people looking at them. Rei blushed again and tried to ignore them. Usagi just muttered in her sleep, something about a horse, after that Ranma didn't want to know anymore. She leaned back and continued her story...  
  
**********  
  
Nerima by night looked like any other district of Tokyo, though there were a larger number of old family homes scattered about. Ranma had used fences and roof hopped all the way here, taking just over half an hour to make her way from the opposite side of Juban to the edges of Nerima. As she was entering the city she felt something and slid to a stop on top of the fence and looked about. Her danger senses was trying to warn her of something and she could feel that someone was watching her, but whoever it was seemed to be able to hide quite well as she couldn't tell just where they were. Then she turned to jump off the fence and froze as she came face to face with a very old man sitting on the fence smoking a pipe. He had look of concentration on his old face as he studied her. Ranma stepped back a couple of steps in shock as she tried to figure out why she hadn't sensed him when he was this close.  
  
"Who are you?" She demanded a couple seconds later.  
  
"Call me Happosai." He eyed her from head to toe.  
  
"Never heard of you." She snapped.  
  
He cackled, letting out little puffs of smoke as he laughed. "It took me several hours to find you and that was only because I wasn't looking in the right place. I need to confirm my suspicions about you first."  
  
Ranma growled. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"Are you Ranma Saotome?"  
  
She blinked in shock as he used the one name she wanted to forget and backed up a couple of steps. "N-no..."   
  
"Yeah right 'boy'." He snapped and narrowed his eyes. "Your aura has the mark of Jusenkyo about it and you are the only curse victim I've seen in the whole district today. You are Ranma Saotome, son of Genma Saotome and Nodoka Saotome."  
  
"My name is Mazaki, y-you have me mistaken for someone else old man, so scram before I have to beat you into the ground!" Ranma yelled and jumped to the nearest roof to get away from the guy.   
  
He moved faster than Ranma expected, jumping from the fence to right in front of her in a blink of an eye. "No listen here boy..."   
  
She was tired and more than a little irritated and now she had to deal with this crap on top of everything else, he was going to pay. Her jump turned into a kick and slammed into the roof tiles, shattering them like they were made of rice paper. Ranma had half a second to realize that the old guy had simply hopped forward, a weird glint in his eye as his hand flashed for her chest. In the next instant he planted his feet on her forehead and used his momentum to send her flying off the roof. She yelled as she was sent flying into the yard below and crash to the ground and rolled for several feet. The old man gave a hoot of glee as he landed on the edge of the roof and sat down to continue smoking his pipe. He had something in his hand, but she was too dazed to see what it was.   
  
"You ready to listen boy?" Happosai asked.  
  
Sitting up proved to be quite hard, but nothing she couldn't handle. "You hit a pressure point didn't you?"  
  
The old man cackled and for a brief second it reminded her of Cologne. "Yep, just something to keep you from running away until we have had our little chat."  
  
"The old man is staying at the Tendo's place, go and beat him up if you want, but leave me out of it." She growled.  
  
"No need for that." Happosai sneered. "I have already punished Genma for his pitiful failure at life."  
  
Now she was confused. "If you didn't want the old man then why are you attacking me?"  
  
"You attacked me boy, all I wanted to do was talk." Happosai said mildly, though the look in his eye was giving Ranma the creeps. "I'm here because of your mother."  
  
"My mother." She said flatly.  
  
"What's with that tone?" He snapped back and took a long draw on his pipe. "Are you angry with her?"  
  
"That is none of your business!" Ranma yelled as she rolled to her feet and looked down at her chest. "What the..."  
  
Happosai held up a sports bra and cackled. "It's not a very pretty one, but I have some that you can use in place of these useless things."   
  
Ranma's eyes widened as she saw her bra glow with life energy. The old man was smirking at her as he seemed to absorb from the sports bra for several seconds. "What the hell are you?"  
  
"Boy, I am the Grand Master of Anything Goes Martial Arts and compared to me you are a pathetic little infant that has barely learned his first kick." Happosai explained as he put the bra inside his shirt. "You and I are going to have a discussion now. Will I have to beat you unconscious to get you to cooperate or will you listen to me like a boy should?"  
  
She growled. "What exactly is it you want?"  
  
"You seem to have some rather odd ideas about certain people and I plan to set things straight. First we need to find a better place to talk than someone else's back yard; strangers don't need to hear this."  
  
"Fine, lead the way old man, I'll follow." She said. "And give me back my bra!"  
  
Happosai cackled as he rolled off the roof, bounced off the ground, and back onto the fence. From there he started running for the commercial district of Nerima at an incredible rate of speed. Ranma considered letting him run off on his own and going in a different direction, but the old far had managed to arouse her curiosity. She could see a high level of skill when she saw it, but she wasn't sure if she believed that bit about being a Grand Master of her school. The old man had never mentioned this character and she was under the impression that there were only three people left in the world that knew their family martial arts. Her, Genma, and Soun Tendo. That was enough to make her follow him a few seconds later, after she discovered he'd taken her underwear as well. Though she wasn't as saddened by losing her boxers as she was the bra. Bouncing breasts hurt.  
  
"Come back here you old freak!" Ranma yelled.  
  
"You gotta do better than that, boy!"  
  
She screamed in rage. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"  
  
"You can try!" Happosai yelled back as he bounced along with a laugh.   
  
Half an hour later Ranma flipped over a fence and landed in a crouch and glanced around. The old man had been playing her for a fool for most of the run, letting her get just close enough to touch him before he would vanish. Only to reappear a few seconds to attack her from some blind spot she even suspected was there. Though to be fair she had gotten in a couple of good hits that sent him flying through a wall or two, but the freak just bounced back with a laugh and continued to lead her around the district like a hyperactive flee on cocaine. She slowly stood, her senses running at maximum as she scanned for any and all threats. If she hadn't see it with her own eyes she would never have believed it, but the old fart was using training techniques that her father had used to train her. The old geezer was good. Better than she would have ever given him credit for, but there was no way she was going to let him win.   
  
"You going to stand there all day?" Happosai asked mildly.  
  
She spun around at his voice and gaped at the old man sitting at one of those all night ramen stands that littered Tokyo these days. The old bastard was on what looked like his second bowl of ramen and giving her the eye. She snarled. "Why you!"  
  
"Just a bit of fun before dinner. Now pull up a seat and let's have that talk we were going to have."  
  
"I should kill you where you stand." She growled and stalked forward. "You will give those back to me now."   
  
The cook of the stand ignored the both of them as he edged behind a rather solid looking wall that divided the tiny kitchen from public view.  
  
Happosai held up his pipe and pointed to a chair. "Sit Boy!"  
  
Ranma yelled as she threw a lightning fast punch at the guy and gaped as he just sighed, twirled his pipe and sent her flying twenty feet in the air with a negligent flip of the pipe when it caught her wrist. She spun around in the air about a dozen times before she crashed down beside him with a loud clatter as several of the bowls fell off the counter and shattered on the ground beside her. The cook winced.   
  
"Now get up and take a seat." Happosai snapped.  
  
Groaning in pain Ranma pulled herself up into a nearby chair and glowered at the old man with quite a bit of hatred. "I thought you said you didn't want anyone to over hear us talking?"  
  
Happosai's hand flashed out and sent one of his chop sticks at the wall. It bounced and ricocheted around the corner and hit the cook right between the eyes and instantly knocked him out. Ranma stared at the unconscious body and sighed.  
  
"Fine, lets talk."  
  
"Me and you have a few things to discus boy and the first of them is why you haven't gone to meet your mother."  
  
"She will kill me because of this!" Ranma snapped and pointed at her breasts.  
  
Happosai gave her a weird look before he shook his head. "What makes you think that?"  
  
"She had me and the old man sign this contract that said if I wasn't a man amongst men when I returned she would have us commit suicide."  
  
"Anything else?"  
  
"I don't know who she is or where she lives." She lied.  
  
Happosai just snorted. "I doubt that, your aura says you are lying."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Your aura is the energy pattern that surrounds you at all times. I know how to see it when I need to and I can tell you're lying. Now tell me the truth."  
  
She looked away. "Fine. I haven't gone to her because I'm not a man nor can I live up to that contract. Most of all how can I trust that she's different than the old man, after all she married the man and allowed the training trip to happen."  
  
"You jump to conclusions to easily boy; I have known your mother for close to thirty years now and she has always been very level headed about things. The only time that changed was when your father abandoned her for your ten year trip."  
  
"Just how do you know that?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Easy, I asked her. We spent most of the afternoon talking about the last few years and what Genma has put her through."  
  
"I know a little, but I don't believe it at all." Ranma muttered.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"A friend of mine found this Internet site that supposedly showed that my mom was looking for me, but when I went to look at it again a few days later it was gone. I figured it was a hoax."  
  
"Boy do you have any idea how to use your brain or has Genma made you so stupid that you need to be led around by the nose just to make your way across the street?" Happosai snapped.   
  
"She abandoned me! That is what I understand!" Ranma yelled and energy began to spark across her body as she sprang to her feet.   
  
"You idiot moron, Genma took you away from your mother on his own. The last ten years has been his way to make sure you would do what he told you to do!"  
  
"I know that too!" Ranma yelled and suddenly understood what was going on. She grabbed her head as the energy she was emitting started to arc around her body, giving her a corona of lighting.   
  
Happosai's eyes widened in shock as he spotted the crescent moon symbol forming on Ranma's forehead and several pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. "Calm down Ranma, you will level the area if you do not!"  
  
Her eyes snapped open and for an instant Happosai could see electricity arcing from them as well.   
  
Ranma started to growl and mutter to herself as she struggled to regain her control. "I am tired of being used like an unwanted toy that is disposed of as soon as a person is through with it. My father dragged me through hell and back in the name of training and what did I get out of it? I lost my manhood and he refuses to even acknowledge what he did to me in the first place. Instead he blames me for his mistakes, uses me to pay his bills, and to live his life for him!"  
  
The old man steeled himself and took a deep breath to calm himself. He had to be careful, if he said the wrong thing he would be in a world of hurt and several people were going to die when Ranma released all the pent up energy she was holding at bay. He calmed his mind and steadied his voice. "Ranma, you need to talk to your mother, she is as much a victim as you are. Genma has been on the run for the last ten years, using his brother to do something, training you for that something, and if you don't vent all the anger you are feeling at this moment in a controlled way you will kill yourself and everybody in a two block radius when you release all that pent up energy you are holding back by will power alone."  
  
Ranma shuddered and an arc of energy slammed into the roof of the portable stand and cut a rather large hole. She carefully eyed the destruction out of the corner of her eye as she fought against the urge to let all burst out of her in one large wave. "How do I release this?"  
  
"How much Ki training have you had? To even produce this effect you have to know something of the Art of Ki Manipulation."  
  
"Just the basics. I've been working on forming the energy into shapes between my hands with my mind, but I haven't been able to get past more than five shapes and be able to hold them longer than five minutes."  
  
The old man's eyes widened. "I see, well we need to get you out of here before you do any more damage."  
  
"I don't know if I can move and not release all this energy." Ranma muttered.  
  
"Calm down boy, that is what you need to do first and once you do that you will regain some control. I think I know a temporary way to fix the problem, but I need you to calm down first."  
  
She gave a bitter laugh. "That's the whole problem isn't it?"  
  
"Don't talk back to me boy, now calm down so I can redirect the energy before it KILLS you. Or are you to much of a coward to even try? You have been running from yourself, your mother, father, even your life as far as I can tell. If that isn't the definition of a coward, what is?" Happosai hissed out in anger.  
  
Ranma froze in mid shudder and her eyes turned as white as the electricity arcing from her body and they focused right on Happosai. For a second the old man wondered if he had said to much in his anger, then was astonished to see the electricity form a kind of barrier around the girl as she slowly stood straight and glared at him. He had to keep a look of shock off his face as he watched the girl's aura shift into yet a new pattern as she stood there. Happosai had never seen anything like it, but the aura coming off the girl was humming slightly even as it nearly blew him off the stool he was sitting in. The curtain that surrounded the front part of the car was blowing about as if caught in a giant gust of wind. On her forehead the little crescent moon was shining with enough light to light up the whole street. She was seriously pissed off, but very much in control for the first time in the last several minutes.  
  
"Excellent work boy, I knew you could do it." Happosai said with what confidence he could muster. His hand lashed out and his pipe hit her right between the eyes and sent her flying back into the wall of the out door ramen shop with loud bang. She slid down and collapsed to the ground with a groan of pain. "Now that you are occupied with something else, let's get to work."   
  
"Wha-what are you d-doing?" Ranma slurred as she tried to use her arms to stand up, but there were to many stars whirling around her head.  
  
"Genma seems to have used some pressure points on you when you were a kid; they are affecting how much Ki you are using as well as limiting your ability to learn how to use Ki. I need to give you the counter to the points he used."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I made a promise to a pretty lady." Happosai quipped with a smirk. He hopped off the stool and walked over Ranma. His hand flashed out and tapped her several times along her spine and shoulder blades.  
  
The feeling that went through her an instant later was indescribable, as if every nerve ending in her body had just given a massive surge of energy. She stopped trying to get up and just lay there shuddering as Happosai continued to tap points along her back and down her legs. After poking her about a hundred times he finally stopped and moved back over to the stool and sat down. Ranma continued to shudder for a few more seconds as whatever had gripped her finally wore off and she was dripping sweat onto the ground. Her hair was matted to her head and her clothes were soiled completely, but she could instantly tell that he had fixed something. She felt a relaxed for the first time in years. It was as if something vital had been returned to her, only that she had no idea it was missing in the first place. "What did you just do?"  
  
"Made you bleed off a the built up energy in a controlled burst and unblocked some of your Ki pathways."  
  
"How long will this last? How fast with the energy build up again?" Ranma asked as she staggered to her feet and had to grab the side of the counter to steady herself.  
  
"Well you should be fine for a few days, perhaps a week before you start to feel the build up again. As for the pathways, that shouldn't bother you anymore and you should have more control of the energy when it begins to build up again. Just practice using it and you will begin to understand how they work. It seems Genma had blocked your Ki pathways with a trick I taught him some time ago. It's supposed to be used in the middle of a fight against an enemy that is trying to kill you and has you over powered. Using it on a young child like you might have killed you, but you survived it. I'm quite surprised really. It's supposed to be fatal."  
  
"Fatal?!" Ranma gasped.  
  
"Yep, it's a desperation move that will leave your opponent powerless to defeat you when you are about to die against a superior foe."  
  
Ranma collapsed into a nearby chair with a groan. Every muscle in her body hurt and there wasn't a thing she could do about it until she got back to where she was staying with Shampoo and Perfume. "Can't anything in my life ever be normal?"   
  
The old man snorted as he hopped of his stool and started walking down the street. "Come along boy, you have someone to meet."  
  
She rushed to catch up and had to use what little will power she had left to keep from falling over after about half a block. "I don't think doing this tonight is going to work."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I can't even stand."  
  
"Don't be a wimp."  
  
"This has been a very active day and even if I had the energy to meet with her I wouldn't do it today."  
  
Happosai glared at her.  
  
"I need a day or so to get ready for it."  
  
The old man was quiet for several second, and then he nodded. "Alright, but I want a promise from you. One that you mean to keep, to meet with your mother at her house within the next couple of days."  
  
"Alright. I'll meet her."  
  
"Good, then I'll leave you here. I want to get back to her house and let her know that you promised. Got me?"  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Oh, and one more thing. I won't permit you to run around with that pathetic level of skill you showed earlier. You and me are going to be training every day until I say otherwise, understand me?" Happosai said as he poked Ranma in the chest a couple of times with his pipe, well more like her stomach.   
  
"You are not my master." She growled.  
  
"I am the Grand Master of Anything Goes, you will obey me in this or I will strip away you right to practice the Art completely. You will never be able to practice your art ever again and I can make sure there isn't a dojo in all of Japan that will take you on as a student." Happosai threatened.  
  
"How dare you?!"   
  
"I never gave Genma the right to teach you in the first place, he isn't a licensed Master of Anything Goes. By the time we are done I expect you to be better than him, but you have to practice. You have a natural skill that your father does not have, but he never trained that side of you. I on the other hand will."  
  
Gritting her teeth in anger Ranma nodded. "Alright."  
  
"You will address me as Master."  
  
"I refuse, earn the right and I'll call you that, but not until then." Ranma countered.  
  
Happosai laughed after looking in her eyes for a couple of seconds. "Good, you seem to be able to use your brain a little bit. Better than that fool that fathered you. He never did understand what my training was meant to do and he failed every test I gave him."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "He can rot for all I care."  
  
Happosai reached into his Gi and pulled out a scroll. "Good, when I'll see you at your mother's house in two days I expect two things. You will demonstrate the prime technique of the Anything Goes Devil's Fist and form a ball of Ki between your hands and hold it in place for at least an hour. The technique is on the scroll and you have already told me that you can form energy between your hands so I expect you to do both with ease. The ball should be easy now that I have unblocked what Genma's tampering did to you, but you will need a bit of practice with the technique."  
  
She nodded and Happosai jumped forward, right towards her and bounced off her breasts. He cackled as he rebounded off, landed on the fence, and ran down the street faster than she could keep up with him. Ranma staggered a bit before she caught her balance and noticed something was off. Then growled as she realized that the old freak had just made off with her undershirt. She shuddered and wondered what the old fart would do to her the next time they met. He obviously seemed to know a lot about Martial Arts and practiced the Saotome Style. On top of that he was a pervert, but she would have to think of a way to pay him back for stealing her things. There was no way he would get away with that so long as she had to be this way. With a flick of her wrist she put the scroll in her subspace pocket with her transformation pen and wearily trudged down the street. It would be another hour before she got back to camp and she was barely able to keep her eyes open as she walked.  
  
**********  
  
"Interesting story and all, but just where have you been staying though?" Rei asked. Pretending not to be worried about her former house guest.  
  
Ranma leaned back against the bench. "Well there's this house on the far side of Nerima that has a large park like area in the back. Full of trees, walkways, even a couple of fountains that look like they haven't worked in years. Me and those two girls you met a few nights back, when we met Pink and Link, have been camping there for the last few days."  
  
"You can't stay there Ranma, it's not right." Ami said.  
  
"I know that's why I talked to Ito this morning and she said she would look into finding me a more permanent place to live."  
  
"Did she say where?" Usagi asked, having miraculously woken up when the story began. Much to Rei's displeasure.  
  
Ranma shook her head. "Nope, just said that she had some favors she could call in."  
  
"How the heck can a cat have a favor to call in?"  
  
"I have no idea." Ranma said with a shrug, trying to recall if Ito really had said that or not. "I'll worry about it when I have to, but for now I'm going to see what she can come up with."  
  
They all nodded as Ranma stood up and looked around. "So what kind of park is this anyway?"  
  
"Well its been here for close to fifty years according to the Caretaker." Ami explained. "I've talked with him several times and he's a nice old man who likes flowers."  
  
"Really?" Usagi asked in an odd tone of voice.   
  
"Oh grow up Usagi!" Rei snapped and glared at Usagi.  
  
"What was that Pyro?!" The blond snapped back and they glared at each other.  
  
"You sounded a bit sad when you mentioned this caretaker Ami." Ranma said, trying to steer the conversation in a direction that might distract Rei and Usagi from yet another fight.  
  
Ami nodded. "The park is going to be leveled in about week to make way for a twenty story office building."  
  
"What?!" Usagi gasped. "They can't level this beautiful park!"  
  
"For once I agree." Rei said. She looked kind of surprised.  
  
Ranma just nodded. "Figures they would ruin this place to make room for more useless buildings."   
  
"We have to stop them!" Usagi growled. "Where are they, I'll yell at them until they leave!"  
  
Rei rolled her eyes.  
  
"There really isn't much we can do. According to my mom the city people have been planning this build for close to two years now. They have everything set up to start next week and keep over a five hundred men in work for the next year at least." Ami explained. She understood progress, though it didn't mean she had to accept it.  
  
"Then the Scouts will stop them! I want to ride one of those boats!" Usagi yelled as she jumped up and started jogging towards the lake. Rei quickly followed.  
  
Ranma eyes Amy and shrugged. "While we're here we might as well stick together I guess."  
  
The genius giggled quietly. "Sure."  
  
"You know Usagi is going to fall in the lake the instant she tries to get in the boat." Ranma said as they followed the other two.  
  
"She's not that bad Ranma."   
  
SPLASH!  
  
"See?" Ranma said with a smirk.  
  
When they got closer though, they found that Usagi was totally dry as she sat on the edge of the dock laughing at Rei as she bobbed in the water. "HAHAHAHAHA!"  
  
Rei just growled, grabbed Usagi's foot and gave a mighty yank and an evil grin as she pulled the blond in with her. The blond shrieked loud enough to draw people's attention as she fell in the lake, dragging both her and Rei under water. The instant they surface the fight was on and they spent the next few minutes trying to dunk each other under water and get on the dock before the other could come back up. Ranma just sat in the grass nearby and watched. Her and water were not the best of friends at the moment. Ami sat next to her and pulled out a couple of books, then turned to Ranma.  
  
"You mentioned a martial arts technique, the one that old man wanted you to learn last night. Have you had a chance to look at it?"  
  
Ranma blinked and nodded. "It's a high level technique taught only to the best of the school. I've never even heard of it before so I'm not sure if my old man knew it or not. There is some kind of history between my father and the old man beyond the teacher and student thing, but I'm not sure what it is."  
  
"Can you do the technique yet?"   
  
She shook her head. "No, but I've been thinking about it all morning. I have a pretty good idea what I need to do, but it's one of those things you have to practice in private. Kind of like a secret technique."  
  
Ami nodded as she pulled out her computer and started typing. "What does it do? If you master it I want to added it to your list of known attacks."  
  
"Ah...well, it's a special kind of punch. It involves a special way to use your Ki so that you can do massive amounts of damage. It also has some side benifits to it as well."  
  
"What does the punch itself do?" Ami inquired.  
  
"Well the scroll says that if I use my Ki right I can strike at an opponent through their armor or any protections they might have."   
  
"You're kidding!?" She muttered.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Any idea what kind of effect it would have on our Senshi forms?"   
  
"From the description of the technique I don't think the magical defenses of the transformation would work." Rama said slowly as she went over it in her mind. "If I was to use it I think I could get in close enough and cause some damage to any of us while we were transformed."  
  
"While you are transformed into Starfire surely."  
  
"Nope, just plain normal me. It'll surprise the heck out of whoever we are fighting don't you think." Ranma bragged.  
  
"That's amazing and it doesn't even use magic to do it?"   
  
"Not that I know of."   
  
"I want to see this in action some time so I can record it." Ami muttered happily.   
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - Several days after I posted this chapter originally I was reminded that Ranma already knew of several techniques that I was saying he didn't know. I had spaced them out during my break from the story and in some cases over a year had passed since I had looked at some of these chapters. I apologise for the confusion and offer up this instead, giving a description of a technique that Happosai uses in a way that Ranma isn't describing here. Now that I have confiremed my mistake Ranma's fighitng abilities are going to be increasing quite a bit as well the direction of the story as the next few chapters continue. I still haven't decided if I'll continue to follow along with the basic Sailor Moon story line for the first season because Ranma is making such a massive change in the way things are going. Even with Zoicite coming up here pretty soon I have to wonder if his part will even take place except as a single chapter. I'm not sure, but I'll decide that when I get there. 


	13. Chapter 11 Can you Say Filler? I knew y...

**********  
  
Princess of the Moon  
  
Chapter 11  
  
Cory D. Rose  
  
ertle2@msn.com  
  
http://shi_hanna.tripod.com  
  
(c) 2003  
  
**********  
  
The energy she was feeling was faint, even Luna had to admit that, but she felt it would be a good idea to track it down just to make sure everything was safe. She just had this feeling that something was familiar about it, but she wasn't about to admit that to Usagi or any of the other girls. No matter how hard she thought about it her memories would not give up the information she needed.   
  
A part of her felt that the person she was tracking was safe to be around and yet another part of her wanted to unsheathe the ol'claws and draw some blood. She couldn't remember ever feeling this way about anything before. Even Artemis, from the old days back on the moon, hadn't made feel like this about someone. She would have just kicked him out the nearest window, preferably from the fourth floor, and watched as he fell into the fountains below.   
  
No something about his was entirely different and she just couldn't quite put her paw on what it was. If Ranma hadn't been around she might have thought it was a clue to the whereabouts of the Princess, but the red headed girl filled that role quite well. Well except for the hair, and the attitude of course, but she did the job well enough. No, this was something else and she would track it down if it was the last thing she did.   
  
It had only popped up around the area a couple weeks back, but she hadn't noticed it until a few days ago. She walked along the top of the stone fence that surrounded an expensive looking house. The trace was faint, but it led into the perfectly manicured yard. Grass for yard upon yard filled her vision. She frowned upon trespassing, but wondered if the person that made the energy she was kind of curious why anyone would just go into someone else yard.  
  
With a cat like shrug she hopped off the fence and landed in the grass below and wasn't at all surprised as the energy seemed to increase now that she was closer to it. She slinked across the lawn and hoped no one saw her. Being a black cat meant she worked best at night when on one could see her, not here in the middle of the day when the sun was shining down on her. Then she came across what had to be the biggest pile of dog excrement she had ever encountered.   
  
The pile was a couple days old, but had to be at least as big as she was and was the best evidence around to prove just how foolish jumping into this yard had been. She glanced around cautiously and thanked all the gods she knew that the dog hadn't noticed her yet.   
  
She made her way around a nearby rose bush and had to stop as she noticed a large rat kneeling in the shadows holding a rather nasty looking spear of some kind. It was also wearing a leather shirt and looked quite evil as it crouched down in the shadows of the rose bush. For a second she thought she was hallucinating so she closed her eyes and took a second to shake her head.   
  
When she looked back the rat was gone and she breathed a sigh of relief as she moved on, pretending she had made the whole thing up. She ignored the sudden feeling that something inside the rose bush was watching her with beady little eyes and sharpening his weapon. Then she heard the one noise she had been dreading ever since the 'pile' had been discovered.   
  
WOOF!  
  
The sound seemed to echo across the yard as this massive dog bounded out of the house and headed right for her. It barked again and Luna took off across the yard, the massive dog bounding along behind her as it barked again and again. She would have screamed, but instinct had taken over and she completely forgot to think. Run, that was she could do.   
  
She zig zagged across the yard, the dog just a few yards behind her as she frantically searched for a way out. Panicked eyes spotted the tree beside the fence and she raced toward it with all she had. When she was just a few feet away she jumped to the tree, quickly climbed the trunk and jumped to the top of the stone fence again. The dog continued to bark as it slammed right into the wall and tried to climb up the wall to get her.   
  
WOOF! WOOF!  
  
Then she jumped off the wall, to the side walk and ran for it. The honk of a horn scared her so bad she swore she nearly had a heart attack as she looked up at the approach of a gleaming silver bumper speeding towards her. She froze as it got closer and closer, her hair stood up on end and she came close to screaming. Then there was a blur of motion and she found herself lifted off the pavement and slammed into something soft and hard at the same time.   
  
With her eyes closed she was quite positive she was dead and wouldn't be able to do her job anymore, but with Artemis around she was expendable. That thought made her start choking in shock, there was no way that moron had the knowledge to help guide the scouts. He was too much of a womanizer.  
  
She opened her eyes and looked around and found that she was being cradled in some guy's arms. A glance at his face was all she needed to see that it was that guy that was always giving Usagi a bad time. Mamoru Chiba, wearing gray swat pants, running shoes, a gray tank top, and a towel draped over his shoulders. He was looking down at her and Luna realized that the guy actually recognized her. She could see it in his eyes as he lifted her up and took a closer look. Luna didn't like being held like that and started to struggled.  
  
"You are that black cat that hangs around with that blond headed girl aren't you?" Mamoru muttered to himself and tried to remember the cat's name. "Moonlight or something."   
  
Luna glared at him.  
  
WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!  
  
She yowled and tried to get away from the monster as its head suddenly seemed to appear above the edge of the wall as it jumped up and down. Mamoru was startled as well as he realized why the cat had been running and gave the dog a look over. Adjusting his grip on Luna he stepped closer to the wall and looked over the edge. He figured the thing had to weigh three hundred pounds at least and it was covered in muscle and scar tissue.   
  
It looked up at him and growled loud enough to be heard for several feet in either direction and he noticed two things. The first was that it was missing an eye and it made the thing look totally evil. The second was a wide leather collar on the things with 'Godzilla' etched right into the leather. Luna shuddered and wondered if the thing had any reptile abilities that matched its name.  
  
"What an ugly dog." Mamoru muttered as he moved away from the wall and turned around. Right as Usagi stomped up to him, glaring at him in anger. "What do you want?"  
  
Usagi grabbed Luna out of his arms and snarled. "What are you doing to Luna?!"  
  
"I saved her." Mamoru snapped back, and was instantly angry with her.  
  
"Ha! I saw you from across the street. You were about to toss her to that dog weren't you?!"   
  
He blinked in amazement that she could even think of such a thing.  
  
"You...you...you are most arrogant jerk I've ever met! First you go out of your way to constantly annoy me and now I find you about to kill my cat as well?!" Usagi snarled as she tried to control her anger. He pig tails rose up above her head and she struggled for control.  
  
Luna was amazed, but knew better than to say anything.  
  
"I DID NO SUCH THING!" Mamoru yelled back.  
  
"YOU TRIED TO KILL LUNA!"  
  
WOOF!  
  
"I DID NOT! I SAVED HER FROM BEING RUN OVER BY A CAR!"   
  
"LIAR!"  
  
"I DID NOT!"  
  
"DID TOO!"   
  
Luna tries to get Usagi's attention as the two scream in each others faces and ignore the crowd that is developing around them. Then Motoki steps through the crowd of people, spots his two best customers and walks over. "Mamoru? Fancy meeting you here."   
  
The two turn their death glares on him.  
  
"Motoki?" Mamoru says and struggles not to yell at the blond ditz as she places Luna on her shoulder.  
  
"Motoki? You know this jerk?" Usagi asks with some surprise.  
  
He nods. "We go to college and have several classes together. I work at the arcade to make some spare money between classes."  
  
"This jerk had the brains to get into college?" Usagi muttered a little too loudly.  
  
Mamoru's head snaps around and he glares at her again. "Oh, as if you will ever make it out of junior high Miss. Thirty Percent."  
  
Usagi kicks him in the shin hard enough to make him grab it in pain, then huffs and stalks off. She isn't really paying any attention as she walks off, or she would have seen Rei just down the street watching the four of them from behind a telephone pole.  
  
"Is it me or does that cat look like it's about to laugh at you Mamoru?" Motoki asked his friend innocently. Trying and failing to hide his smirk.  
  
"That girl has got to be the most..." Mamoru growled as he pushed hid way out of the crowd with Motoki.  
  
"I'll say." Motoki said with a grin.  
  
"I don't think we are talking about the same thing." Mamoru said suspiciously.  
  
"Whatever you say, let's get over to the arcade and get something to eat."  
  
"Yeah, whatever, as long as I don't have to see that girl again." Mamoru muttered and wondered why he felt so weird whenever he encountered her.  
  
**********  
  
Once again he found himself studying the stars and allowed his mind to drift as he tried to figure out what had happened to him. Never before had he had a vision go out of control like that and the only answer he could come up with was that someone had interfered with it.   
  
His number one suspect was Zoicite, but even after a few hours of searching he had been unable to find any trace of the man's magic. What worried him even more was that there was no sign of outside interference as far as he could tell. None at all, not even the smallest hint that someone had messed with one of his spells.  
  
He knew the magical signatures of Zoicite, Kunzite, and even Queen Beryl just by looking at them. Whoever had messed with the vision had done so with such subtlety that no sign had been left behind. He didn't know anyone that had that kind of finesse with magic no matter how hard he thought about it.   
  
Then there was the other aspect of the vision that he had been trying to forget, but there was a problem. No matter how hard he tried those unwanted memories kept flashing images within his mind and it was driving him crazy. Visions of him in his academy uniform, pictures of people that he didn't recognize or flashes of him and Zoicite laughing together with Kunzite tied up on the couch nearby glaring at them.   
  
With every passing hour he would recall more and more of the strange visions and yet little understanding of them. They had to have some meaning, but if he tried to actually think about them and understand something within his mind would resist with a tenacity that surprised him. It seemed as if it was sentient memory of some kind actively working to make sure that he didn't remember any of this stuff.   
  
He had served Beryl for millennia and this kind of thing had never happened before. Yet one little vision of his early years and it was as if all his mental walls had been washed away. When it was all said and done though, one image stood out among the rest.  
  
A girl with Red hair, a striking pair of blue eyes swam around his memory and it was all he could do to recall the image in any detail. There was also this unexplainable ache in his groin that just wouldn't go away whenever he tried to remember her. Something about the girl he recalled must have meant a lot to him if he was still able to feel phantom pain even after all this time. He sat back in his chair and looked to the stars once more as he grinned.   
  
Whoever she was would have to wait because he had to set the next portion of his plan in motion. That red hair reminded him of the Sailor Scout that had taken out his Youma at the tennis courts. He would have to take her abnormal strength into account for when she showed up. The rest of the scouts weren't that much of a threat, but that one had been Jedite's down fall.   
  
Looking to the stars as they shine and sparkle all around him he closed his eyes and started mumbling to himself. His last pick had been good, but she had been to close to the Scouts. They had shown up even before his Youma revealed herself so he figured he would pick someone that wasn't as likely to know the Scouts unlike that Rui girl.   
  
His body started to glow and a beam of energy came from his forehead and started to form a pattern in the air as it bounced off the stars around him. All the while he continued to mumble a complicated spell to himself. Then there was a surge of energy and he opened his eyes to see that a ghostly picture of an old man wearing gloves and tending to some plants.   
  
"The Caretaker." He said. "A bit old for my plans, but even at this advanced age he still hasn't reached his full potential yet. He will work perfectly. The Scouts are unlikely to have any contact with this one, but I will take precautions just in case."  
  
**********  
  
Putting on her best smile, Rei looked up at Motoki and pretended to be a bit shy. "So, tell me more about this Mamoru Chiba."  
  
Standing behind the counter as he cooked some fries for Rei, Motoki could only shake his head. He had known Mamoru for several years now and it constantly amazed him how the guy could have such a drastic effect on women. They either loved him at first sight or they hated him with equal passion. He glanced over at Usagi as she played her way through the Sailor V game, trying to make it to the next level with everything she had. From the sounds of things she wasn't doing as well as she wanted, but better than last time if her shout of happiness had been any indication.   
  
Usagi and Mamoru had hit it off like oil and water. They disliked each other from the start and no matter how much he tried to get the two of them to make up and be friends they ended up arguing instead. It didn't help that Mamoru liked to rile the blond up or that it was so easy to do. Motoki had witnessed the girl ignore some of the meanest insults while playing the games in here and yet one 'Meatball Head' from Mamoru and she was ready to strangle him right then and there. On the other hand there were those that like Rei that seemed to find him irresistible the instant they met him.  
  
More than one girl had snuck in when they found out that him and Mamoru were friends and tried to hit him up for information. Though to be fair it was usually collage age girls with a lot more to offer than the teenager he had in front of him. "What would you like to know?"  
  
"What are his hobbies?!" Rei asked. "Anything special?"  
  
"Well let's see, he has several hobbies that take up his time. He likes martial arts..." Motoki began.  
  
Rei squealed happily. "What else?!"  
  
"Um, lets see, he's going to college to become a doctor and that takes up a lot of his time."  
  
The dark haired girl nodded as Motoki set her fries down in front of her and handed her a ketchup bottle. She started to eat them absently as she hung on his ever word. "And...?"  
  
"He also likes to grow things, flowers and such."   
  
"How romantic." Rei gushed as plans were already sorting themselves out in her head. She would meet that hunk again if she had her way and even better, Usagi didn't seem to like him that much. That was a plus in her book.   
  
"That jerk doesn't have a romantic bone in his body!" Usagi snarled from where she was playing the Sailor V game.   
  
"That's not your problem, Meatball Head!" Rei yelled back.   
  
Motoki also wondered how it was that Mamoru tended to find all the girls with tempers as well. Maybe he had a thing for girls that would stand up to him or something because the last four had all been like this. "Um..."  
  
"HAH!" Usagi yelled back and cried out as she suddenly died in the game and grabbed her head. "Nooooooo!!"  
  
"Serves you right!" Rei yelled back with a sinister grin.  
  
The blond jumped to her feet and stomped across the arcade and leaned in close to Rei. "Listen Pyro..."  
  
For a second Motoki thought he saw electricity shooting from their eyes as they glared at each other and wondered if they really were friends. He didn't need a cat fight breaking out inside the arcade if he could help it. He opened his mouth to say something when they suddenly started a tongue war, then turned their backs on each other, and Rei suddenly tossed her hair and stalked out of the arcade. Usagi growled at her and moved to follow and Motoki moved to stop her before she had a chance to make things even worse.  
  
"Hey Usagi, want a free ice cream?" He asked.  
  
"Yeah!" The blond squealed and almost jumped over the counter as she hugged him and he tried not to laugh at her antics.  
  
"You two are friends right?" He asked as she let go and took a seat at the counter.  
  
Usagi nodded. "We tend to argue about a few things every now and then, but we're still friends."  
  
"For a moment there I could have sworn that you and Mamoru were arguing." He said with a grin as she paled.  
  
"Ewwww! That's gross!"  
  
**********  
  
The door closed softly as Nodoka exited the room and headed for the kitchen. Her two house guest Pink and Link had vanished the day before. They hadn't said anything, but she was pretty sure they had left because of what happened with Genma. She didn't blame them, but to just up and leave without saying goodbye was a bit rude of them, although it might have something to do with her other house guest as well. He was sitting at the table scarfing down his breakfast just like Genma used to. It was easy enough to see where the man had picked up his horrid table manners. Happosai was a hard man to describe, though there were a few things about him that she figured would never change.  
  
When he had saved her from Genma it had been a complete surprise. It was completely out of character for the man, really. Now if he had saved her just to steal her bra or something like that she could believe his motivations, but what he did to Genma had been a complete shock. Then he had the unmitigated gall to waltz through her house and read something she had left out on the table.   
  
Still, no matter how mad she was with the man, he had done something that she had spent the last ten years failing to do. He had gone out and within twenty four hours located and talked her son into coming home. Though there were a few things Happosai said he needed to explain to her before Ranma could come home. Like an explanation of the post card and what Jusenkyo was.  
  
"Are you enjoying breakfast Master Happosai?" She asked quietly.  
  
"Very much so." He said as he put down his fifth bowl of rice. "I noticed your two house guests weren't here when I got up."  
  
"Pink and Link seem to have taken to the road again." Nodoka explained.  
  
"They are Amazons Nodoka; they are very independent people and will do anything to stay that way. Even being homeless is better than depending on an outsider."   
  
"I'm afraid they never said much in the few days they were here. Just got up, helped with a few meals and practiced that strange plant style of theirs."  
  
"I encountered a master of that style while in China once. Those two were nothing compared to the guy I fought. He could toss out a seed and the thing would start growing in mid air and by the time it landed it was bigger than a house with enough energy to send a hundred vines and roots at me. I was quite amazed at the whole thing, though a good fire was all it took to defeat him." Happosai proclaimed with a laugh. "I have a feeling we might see them around. How did you meet them anyway?"  
  
Nodoka took a second to decide if telling Happosai some of her secrets would cause any problems, then figured that he would find out on his own. "Do you know about my side of the family?"  
  
"You're Devil Hunters."   
  
"Exactly, I've never been the most astute student of the family business, but I am able to do a few things when I can. I know the basics of the sword, but I've had to compensate because of my schooling. I came across what I thought was a rather powerful Demon terrorizing those two girls and moved to help them. During the fight I found out that the thing wasn't a demon and that placed me at a bit of a disadvantage because my sword uses magic to give me the skills I need to use it against Demon's only."  
  
"You never mastered the whole style?"   
  
"I know it all, but I have never mastered the full style because of things that happened in my life." Nodoka explained. "During the course of the fight several others showed up, including the Sailor Scouts, and three others that seemed to be chasing after Pink and Link. After we fended off the false Demon the girls began to argue and I stepped between them and offered the two a place to stay to prevent the different sides from fighting each other. One of the ones after Pink and Link was this red head that reminded me of myself when I was that age. She had red hair, athletic build, and large breasts that seemed to be characteristic of the girls on my side of the family."  
  
"Ranma?" Happosai confirmed.  
  
"Yes, as far as I know. I was still trying to figure out what he meant in the post card he sent me so I only had my suspicions and didn't act on them like I should have."  
  
"The girl I tracked down seems to be the same one you are talking about and seems to have quite a few problems to sort out I'm afraid."   
  
"What was 'he' like?" Nodoka asked. She didn't want to think of her son as a girl. It made her stomach hurt just thinking about the loss he must feel if what the post card said was true.  
  
"I haven't told you about Jusenkyo, have I?"   
  
Nodoka shook her head.   
  
"In the Bayankala Mountain Range of the Zinghai Province of China there is a small secluded valley centered right in the middle of the lands of three very secretive and powerful people. They have been using their influence and resources to keep the People's Republic of China from wiping them out and taking over the area. Jusenkyo Valley is located at the heard of this mess and has a history that even I haven't been able to figure out.   
  
That place is one of the few left in the world that can turn the biggest skeptic of magic into a religious belief in the blink of an eye. A heavy magical curse rests upon the place and can, if you are not really careful, change your life forever. There are a number of springs dotted around the place. The water is very cold and was at one time used as a training ground for fighters learning the basics of aerial combat. Jumping from bamboo poles set with the bottom of each spring. What makes the springs so cursed is that whenever a new spring is formed and it fills with icy cold water it calls to some nearby creature, human or animal, and they will drown there."  
  
  
  
"This is where Ranma was taken by Genma?"  
  
Happosai just nodded. "Yes. Once that creature drowns there that spring will be altered to give the basic form of that creature to whomever falls in that spring. It used to be a permanent change, but according to the books in the guide's shack that I read through, over time the spring's effect has lessoned and that hot water could be used to transform people back to their normal selves. Until such time as they were hit with cold water again. Something about the curse adapted to this and now whenever anyone falls in the spring they tend to attract cold water in the oddest ways. It is quite often that it's an icy cold rain that lasts only seconds, just long enough to change the victim into their new shape. Now Ranma seems to have fallen into one of the several different types of Drowned Girl springs that dot the valley."  
  
"If that is so, then why does he think he's cursed permanently? If a splash of hot water will reverse the effect?" Nodoka asked.  
  
"The locals have found ways to lock the curse if they need to. I would guess that he ran afoul of one of the three groups and they punished him by locking it. The easiest way is through use of this magic Ladle that is used to throw cold water on the victim and it seals the curse. Then there are some pressure points that could pull the trick off, and this one insidious spell that the worst of those groups created. One that destroys the original body and makes the curse form the dominate one."  
  
"Is there no way to cure him?" Nodoka asked sadly.   
  
"Jusenkyo is pure chaos magic, which means its effects can be completely random at times. Are there cures? Sure there are, but each of them seems to be determined by the person that is cursed. I heard of one guy that was able to simply accept his curse completely and in the end he woke up one day and the curse was gone. While another guy was able to have the curse lifted by making a deal with a powerful wizard and came out of the deal a changed man."   
  
"Do you have any idea what Ranma will be like when he gets here?"   
  
"Ranma grew up with Genma and if what he said is true, then he has learned that he has to be careful when he meets you. I had to trick him a little to even get him to come by the house and meet you."  
  
"What did I ever do to him?" Nodoka sniffled.  
  
"He doesn't know if he can trust you or not and that worries him."  
  
"I would never hurt my own son."  
  
Happosai frowned. "He mentioned something to me that I found a bit odd; about a web page?"  
  
"Oh I have a web page set up to help me look for clues to where Ranma might be whenever Genma runs from me."   
  
"He said a friend of his found it, but when he went to look at it a second time it wasn't there."  
  
"That's weird, it's been about a month since I last had an opportunity to check it."  
  
Nodoka explained as she got up and made her way into the front room. She had a computer set up on a small desk in the corner. "Let me check on it."  
  
Though he would never admit it, Happosai had never seen a computer in his life so he was a bit surprised as he watched Nodoka fiddle around with the box he had though was a funny looking TV. Then she pressed a few buttons and started to curse, loudly. "Problem?"  
  
"Gendo Saotome." She snapped.  
  
"What's he got to do with anything?"  
  
"He makes sure that Genma gets away and that I'm always one or more steps behind them. I think making my life miserable is his hobby. The last time we met the bastard set a bunch of possessed skeletons loose and told them to kill me."  
  
"He knows magic?" Happosai asked in shock. "That isn't good."  
  
"Tell me something I don't know. He has this influence over people that is amazing at times. This time he seems to have found my web page and had it removed from the net. I've an e-mail here saying that it was pulled due to complaints and that legal action would have been taken if it wasn't removed. He does this to me all the time." She growled and thumped the desk a few times to vent a little anger.  
  
"Just make a new one, can't be that hard to do." Happosai said, in the tone of voice used by backseat drivers across the globe.  
  
"I can't, my internet will be cut off sometime in the next few days to prevent me from doing just that."  
  
"You've been putting up with this all these years?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, only it just gets worse and worse as time goes on."  
  
"Gendo and Genma need to learn a few lessons I think." Happosai said as he turned to go outside. "Oh, Ranma will be here at noon tomorrow so you might want to get ready in case something happens between now and then. Gendo seems to be pulling strings to make sure you can't see Ranma so we need to pull our own strings. I'm going to go call in a favor, then go on my rounds."  
  
Nodoka just sighed and nodded. "Rounds?"  
  
Laughing, Happosai pulled a pair of panties out of his coat and flapped them around as he bounced out of the house with a big bag across his back. "By Liberating my Silky Darlings!"  
  
"Well at least that was normal for him, though did he have to take my best pair?" Nodoka muttered and checked to see if she was indeed walking around sans her underwear. "How in the world does he do that?"  
  
**********  
  
Tires squealed as Nephlite raced down the road passing cars left and right. He weaved through the thick traffic on the roads with the skill of a professional driver out for a little fun. The top on the car was down and his long brown hair was blowing around in the wind behind him. He glanced in the rearview mirror and adjusted his glasses as he raced around a large white truck pulling a trailer load of wood to some unknown location.   
  
For a second he considered the truck and wondered if such a thing might come in handy sometime in the up coming weeks. Then he put it out of his mind and squealed the tires as he skidded around a corner, shifted gears, and accelerated up the street leaving a cloud of smoke and the smell of burning rubber behind him as he grinned.   
  
Who would have thought that these useless humans could come up with something like this just by building it with their own hands and not a bit of magic? Dodging all the obstacles that were in his way was a lot of fun too. He slowed the car down to a slightly less insane speed as he made sure people had time to dodge out of the way as he came by and squealed the tires again as he headed into the section of the district that he needed to be.   
  
His magic was giving him a mental map of the area, telling him where he needed to go and the exact location of the target he had chosen for his next plan. He still hadn't learned that old man's name and he found it a bit odd that everyone just called him Caretaker. It didn't really matter either, because within the next twenty four hours he would have enough energy collected for Queen Beryl to make the wait worth it.  
  
A few minutes later he pulled into a parking lot next to the park and noticed all the construction equipment that was being set up in the grass nearby. There was nobody around so he walked over and checked the big machines over. He had never seen anything like them before. One of the big machines, a large white and blue loader that looked like it would have been able to just run over Zoicite with no problems caught his attention.   
  
Jedite/Jade got out and walked around it as he examined how it was put together and decided that it would work. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small crystal and tossed it on the ground beside the loader. It flared with energy for a second before it started to grow and formed into a Youma.  
  
"Vexpa." He snapped.  
  
The Youma was a typical type, vaguely female as Queen Beryl liked them to look and one of a half dozen he had taken from Jedite's collection when was disposed of. The rest had been split among Kunzite and Zoicite and the unwanted ones abandoned until they found something useful to do. Vexpa had been one of Jedite's unused Youma because of her quiet nature.   
  
That very nature was what he had taken her for. She had a fully human looking body, a blank face with no features, and was wearing a black dress that hugged her body, there was a long slit up either side of the dress and front and back portions came to a pint a few inches above the ground. He black gloves also came to a point just below her elbows, had a black choker around her neck, and a pointed black witches hat with a red ribbon around it.  
  
It saw him and slowly knelt down in front of him. "Master."  
  
"Listen up; I have a mission for you."  
  
"Of course Master."  
  
A few minutes later he walked deeper into the park and checked his mental map again just to make sure he was headed in the right direction. The Caretaker had barely moved in the last half hour, so it was easy enough to find him. The guy was kneeling next to a large setting of flowers, weeding out all the bad plants and replanting new ones in their place. Nephlite watched him for several minutes and tried to figure out the best way to approach the man. From the looks of it the man rarely ever left his job. Then a breeze blows through the park and Nephlite uses that to his advantage.  
  
Casting a spell under his breath and with a flick of his finger the wind picks up just enough to blow the Caretaker's hat off his head and sends it tumbling towards Nephlite. He watches as the man turns to get the hat, but by the time he even moves it's at Nephlite's feet. He picks it up and his symbol etches itself into the weaving of the hat for a half a second before vanishing. Smiling, Nephlite hands the hat back to the Caretaker and watches as he glows for a second as his Youma goes into effect. "Good afternoon!"  
  
"Hello." The man says as Nephlite hands his hat back to him.  
  
"What's with all the construction equipment out by the parking lot?"  
  
"The park is going to be leveled her in a few days so someone can put up another office building." The Caretaker says sadly as he puts his hat back on, though his eyes told a different story.  
  
Grinning, Nephlite pats the man on the shoulder. "I'm sure everything will work out in the end."  
  
"I certainly hope so, well I have a few more flowers to plant. Excuse me." The man says and wanders off.  
  
Even after a few seconds Nephlite can tell that everything is working just fine as Peasosu begins to work her magic on the man's mind. Amplifying his energy a hundred fold and then the fire works would really begin to fly.   
  
**********  
  
The bird flapped its wings a little as it glided across the ground to gain a bit of height, turned on its wing, and landed in red mass. It trilled happily as it took a second to rest. Ranma, who was sitting against the large tree where she was camping out with her two Amazon friends tried to glare at the bird that had just landed on her head.   
  
She thrashed her head back and forth to dislodge it, but the thing dug its claws in and managed to stay in place. It pecked her head a few times. Then she tried to knock it off her head and it took off in a burst of feathers and an angry squawk. "&%$# BIRD!"  
  
A few yards away Shampoo was squatting in front of the fire poking it with a stick to make sure it didn't go out while she was making something to eat. She looked up as Ranma started to curse. "Ranma what you doing?" Shampoo asked as she walked over and sat down beside her.  
  
"Trying to figure out this technique." Ranma explained as she flapped the scroll back and forth.  
  
"What it about?"   
  
"The old fart called it The Devil's Fist."  
  
"Oooooh!" Shampoo said as her eyes widened. "Never heard of that one."  
  
"It's an advanced technique." Ranma said smugly.   
  
"Teach to Shampoo?" She asked cutely.  
  
"Now way! It's a special technique of my school!"   
  
"Please?" She asked and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.   
  
"No!"   
  
"Ah!" She muttered as she got up and stalked off. "Then Shampoo no share Ice Cream."  
  
"Whatever." Ranma called after her and turned back to the scroll she was reading.   
  
She wasn't really sure what in the world she was supposed to do with the techniques. It seemed simple enough, but the more she looked into it the harder it became. It involved some kind skill she hadn't managed to figure out yet. The scroll said something about folding her Ki in just such a way so that it could 'phase' through solid objects and touch the enemy. She had always wondered why secret scrolls never just told a person how they worked. Things would be a lot easier if they got to the point and told her what she needed to know.  
  
From her lessons with Cologne back in the Amazon Village she understood a little of what the scroll was saying. All those years with the old man had taught her a few things as well, but in this case she couldn't figure out how her Ki was supposed to be folded. The Scroll didn't really give any details on how to do it and the little picture was just plain confusing.   
  
It was kind of ironic that most of the scrolls her old man had used over the years were just like this one. He never had explained them to her. Just told her what to do and forced her to train until she had it down. Whether she understood how it was done or not.  
  
So she figured this one was using the same principle to exclude some vital part of the technique that only a student of the Anything Goes School would know about. She had been trying to figure out what that one thing was for the last hour or more, but there were so many different ways it could be done that she couldn't find the one that worked best. All she had for her effort turned out to be a headache and some eye strain from reading the scroll over a few hundred times.   
  
She stood up and stretched. Then rolled the scroll back up and stuffed it in her subspace pocket with her Sailor Scout stuff and started to pace around the tree. Thinking still wasn't one of her finer points and it showed at times like this when she was being forced to do something. If someone had tried to kill her at that moment she would probably figure it out just to defeat whoever was attacking her, but to just come up with the idea without it was nearly impossible.   
  
For a brief moment she considered talking to Shampoo to see if she might know how to do it. She had noticed that the Amazons had this uncanny ability to find and hoard all kinds of obscure and useful Ki techniques. Then she shook her head and decided that it wouldn't be a very good idea. She would have to figure it out on her own since there was a good chance that anything she showed to Shampoo would end up among their techniques.   
  
She stepped over to a nearby tree and started to study it a little, and letting her Ki senses examine it in greater detail. It had been one of the skills that Cologne spent quite a bit of time making her learn how to master. They were telling her that the tree had quite a few weak spots inside the tree just below the bark. If the technique worked the way the scroll said id would she would be able to reach through the bark and rip out the wood just below the bark along those weak spots.   
  
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the tree and reached deep within to tap her Ki. She ignored the fact that it seemed to surge within her body like an unleashed monster. Her hand started to glow as she mentally folded the Ki several different ways and carefully tapped a finger against the tree. She quickly figured out how to make the bark explode around her finger by barely touching it.  
  
After blowing the sawdust out of her eyes she stepped back with her hand still glowing, and tried to think of a different way to do it. She glanced at her hand and concentrated on it for a second and the glow took on a deeper glow, almost a navy blue, and she reached out again. The instant she touched the tree she knew it was a mistake and she felt a surge of power leave her. The tree seemed to explode around her hand even as she was yanking it away.  
  
She groaned a little as the thing seemed to go into slow motion as it fell over with that creaking noise a falling tree makes. As she scrambled out of the way she kicked it with a Ki powered kick and shattered the mass into several large chunks and sent up a wave of dust and sawdust. "&%$#$%@*&" She snapped under her breath.  
  
Perfume, who was sitting next to Shampoo over by the fire looked up as the tree fell and laughed as Ranma jumped out of the way. "Is that how it's supposed to work?"  
  
"No!"   
  
"We might be able to help." She said.  
  
"I have to figure this out on my own."  
  
"Well good luck then." Perfume called. "If you need help just be sure to ask."  
  
"Humph!" Ranma grumped and walked over to another tree and started pacing back and forth. "I'll figure this out."  
  
After a few minutes of pacing she gave up on thinking about it, walked over to her tent, and crawled inside to grab a bandage to wrap around her hand. She sat down and opened her pack which was sitting against the back of the tent, with her sleeping bag rolled up next to it, and noticed that Ito was curled up inside sleeping.   
  
"Hey, Ito!" The cat looked up and yawned. "What?"  
  
"Have you managed to find us a place to stay yet?"  
  
"No, I didn't get a chance to work on it to much today." Ito said.  
  
"Why?"   
  
"I was busy."  
  
"Doing what?"  
  
"Things." The cat said.  
  
"Can you be a little more detailed?"  
  
"No." The cat snapped and ducked back down inside the pack.   
  
Ranma sweatdropped. "Do you want to be hung by your paws from one of the higher tree branches in that tree over there?" She asked mildly.  
  
The head popped back out. "I got…busy, alright. I'll finish taking care of it tomorrow when I've got something I need."  
  
"Just don't forget, we can't stay her forever you know." Ranma said as she finished wrapping her hand.   
  
"Especially with you knocking trees down like that." Perfume said as she stuck her head in the tent and looked at the cat. "Ah, there you are! Will this work?" She asked as she held up a pair of nearly sheer panties.  
  
Ranma froze in shock and fell over with her pig tail sticking straight up.  
  
With a blush clearly visible on her red furred face Ito just nodded and ignored the strange look that Ranma was giving her.   
  
The Amazon tossed them on top of Ito's head, glanced at Ranma, and laughed as she vanished as fast as she had appeared. Ranma, with multiple sweatdrops forming on the back of her head looked at the cat. "What the hell do you need with….with…those things?!"   
  
"Well I was going to try and get you a place to stay." Ito said as she folded the panties with her paws and placed them in her subspace pocket.  
  
"What do you need them for though?" She asked.  
  
"I told you already."  
  
Ranma suddenly had a dream about Ito selling herself on a street corner by flashing a see through panty at guys as they passed. She shuddered. "I won't allow you to do it!"  
  
"What in the hell are you talking about?" Ito yelled.  
  
"I won't allow you to sell your body on the streets!" Ranma declared and grabbed one of her shirts out of the pack. "Even if I have to tie you up."  
  
The cat's fur stood on end. "WHAT?! WHO THE HELL SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THAT?!"  
  
"Now be a good cat and hold still." Ranma said. "This won't hurt, much."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I'm not going to let you do it!" Ranma yelled as she lunged forward.  
  
"I'm NOT!" The cat yelled and jumped out of the bag. "Will you calm down?!"   
  
Ito ducked under the attack, avoided the shirt, and ran out of the tent as fast as she could. She quickly vanished into the trees around the tent before Ranma had a chance to react. A half a second later Ranma rolled out of her tent, this time with a net in her hand, and took off after the cat with a yell. Perfume and Shampoo, who were still cooking lunch, looked up at Ranma as she ran off after the cat.   
  
"What's she up to?" Perfume asked as she tasted the soup. "Lunch is almost done.  
  
"Shampoo have no idea." The other Amazon said with a shrug. "More for us."  
  
"Yeah, but we might want to follow after her."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"In case she gets in trouble?" Perfume asked, and then shook her head as Shampoo gave her a weird look. "Naw! There's no way that girl could get into that much trouble."  
  
Shampoo continued to give her friend a weird look.  
  
"What?"  
  
Ito screamed as she burst out of the bushes nearly, ran into the clearing, hurtled the soup, and tore off under the old house several yards away. A few seconds later Ranma burst out of the bushes and slid to a stop panting for air and glaring around her. "Where did she go?"  
  
She could see Ito watching them from the shadows under the house as she shook her head frantically. "Um…lunch is almost ready." Perfume said to distract Ranma.   
  
"Cool! I'm incredibly hungry so I'll catch the cat later and make her tell me what's going on." Ranma said as she plopped down beside the fire and grabbed a nearby bowl.   
  
The two Amazons nodded slowly. "Sound Good." They said to humor the girl.  
  
From underneath the house Ito watched the girls eat and tried to figure out what in the world was going on. "There are days when that girl is down right unstable. Maybe I should find an excuse to send her back to Juban for the rest of the day just to get her out of my fur." She muttered to herself and glared at the girl as if trying to use her mental powers to make her leave. Then Ranma jumped up.  
  
"I gotta go, I forgot to take care of something in Juban when I was there earlier!"  
  
"See'ya later!" The Amazons said as Ranma ran off and left them with cleaning up the dishes. They glared in the direct that Ranma had gone.   
  
Ito popped her head out from underneath the house and watched Ranma run off as well. "When you're good, you're good." She said smugly.  
  
**********  
  
Vexpa was in human form as she stepped onto the train, dressed in a simple school girl uniform and carrying a small book bag. She had given her new form short black hair and angled features that didn't really stand out among the crowd. Once inside she grabbed one of the hand holds hanging from a bar attached to the ceiling of the car and made sure she had a somewhat concealed spot.   
  
A quick glance around the car quickly filled with students and business men on their way home. She counted over forty people in this car and she was a bit amazed that there were even more people pilling into the car. She grinned a little and remembered what Nephlite had told her to do when she went into action. That meant she had to be quiet enough not to let the humans know she was there no matter what happened. All she had to do was collect a tiny bit of energy from the people on the train as it traveled across Tokyo. The humans would never even know what was happening if she was careful and that was a specialty of hers.  
  
She closed her eyes and sent out an invisible wave of negative energy, almost nothing compared to what some of the Youma usually used. She let it slowly seep into the metal of the train car around her and made sure that she had everything under control. Her powers weren't really all that formidable in a fight, which was why Jedite had never used her on an actual mission. He had explained to her that impatience had caused his problems and that he wanted to take a different rout now. So all she had to do was do what Nephlite told her to do and he would take care of the rest.  
  
Any of the energy she collected would go straight to him after she finished up her mission, except for a tiny amount that would be siphoned off and sent directly to Jedite. That way if she was killed by the Scouts none of the energy collected would be able to return to people she got it from. They would just have to recover it on their own like they normally would and she would be able to get more from them every time they road the train.   
  
Vexpa grinned to herself as she felt her power fill the car around her and started to draw in the energy from the people around very slowly. They didn't even have a clue what was going on and she figured that at this rate it would take days to drain everyone completely. At most they would feel a little tired at the end of the day. Within a week she would have drained enough energy to match the energy from a thousand people. She could easily get more energy in this one mission than the Dark Kingdom had collected to date. All it would take was some patience. Something the Dark Kingdom didn't have very much of, so she would have to be doubly careful.   
  
She was a bit hesitant to try something like this, but Nephlite had insisted that it would work out perfectly. Then she heard something and turned to look down at something sitting on the floor nearby and noticed that there was a large black cat yawning as it woke up looked up at her. It seemed to realize what she was as its fur started to bristle and for a brief second she considered draining the thing completely and leaving its dead body for someone to find.   
  
Then she changed her mind and focused on the plan that Nephlite had insisted that she follow at all costs. It had only been a few minutes and so far she had quite a bit of energy stored away and she used a bit of that to slowly let it move onto the next car and began to quietly absorb that energy too. Nephlite had originally set her free and told her suck the construction crews dry when they showed incase the Caretaker didn't work.   
  
Waiting around for that to happen hadn't been doing her any good so she had set off to set her own mission set in motion. Nephlite knew what she was doing and had approved her initiative through their mental link. As she gathered energy she looked down at the cat again as it started to hiss at her. A couple of people looked up to see what was going on so she didn't have a chance to do what she wanted to do. Vexpa smiled at the cat since people were watching her and quickly drained most of its energy. It made a funny sound as it just fell over and started to sleep.   
  
"Such a cute kitty." She said and knelt down to pet it, filling its body with negative energy as an after thought. There was a possibility that she might be able to use it if she needed to.  
  
"What was it hissing at?" An old man asked her as she stood up.  
  
"It's hard to say. I'll bet it spotted a mouse running around in here." An old woman in a nearby seat said with a cackle.  
  
The old man just nodded and turned back to reading his paper.  
  
Vexpa just smiled serenely and transferred the energy to Nephlite like she had been told to do. There hadn't been much in a cat, but there were millions of them floating about the city and she already had a few ideas how she could use it now that she possessed it. She would have to ask Nephlite if the cat's energy was good enough to start collecting more from them. They couldn't fight back either, which in her mind was a good thing.   
  
**********  
  
The plan was set and now all she had to do was set it in motion. Rei grinned as she glanced around the corner to see if Mamoru was in sight. She sighed a little and stepped back and took a second to adjust her little red dress she was wearing. Hoping that it would be enough to let Mamoru notice her, but she had to be careful. Ever since she had met the guy she had been thinking about him and she had every intention of at least getting to know him a little better.   
  
She reached into her purse and pulled out a small compact to do a quick check of her make up, took second to fluff her hair, and added a bit of lip gloss as she nervously waited. Then she heard something and turned to look around the corner again. A guy on a bicycle nearly took her head off as he flew around the corner, nearly knocking her off her feet.  
  
"Eeep!" She yelled as she stumbling back against the wall. She glared, a bit of fire in her eyes, and yelled at the guy as she watched him ride down the street. He didn't even bother to slow down as he made a rude gesture at her and dodged through traffic and disappeared. Growling a little she looked down and saw that she had dropped her compact on the ground, breaking it into about a dozen pieces.   
  
"Ah crap." She muttered. "I'll make you pay for that!"   
  
"Haha!" Echoed back, ticking her off even more.  
  
"Jerk!"  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
She froze and slowly turned around to see Mamoru looking at her with a concerned look on his face.  
  
"Ahmina…" She blathered out and blushed, shook her head, and took a second to smile at him. "Excuse me."  
  
Mamoru nodded as he took a second to bend down and pick up all the pieces to the compact, brushing most of it into a pile with his hand. He picked it up and tossed it in a nearby trash can and dusted off his hands as best he could before turning back to Rei. "There you go."  
  
"Thank you." Rei said shyly.  
  
"We met this morning I think." He said.  
  
"Yep, you saved Usagi's cat."  
  
"Mamoru Chiba." He introduced himself.  
  
"Rei Hino."  
  
"Would you like some tea?" He asked.  
  
Grinning, somewhat insanely, Rei grabbed his arm and nodded a few times. "Yeah! How about at the Crown Arcade?"  
  
"I was just heading there." Mamoru said with a grin.  
  
Rei could feel his eyes checking her out and knew that the little red dress had worked perfectly. They started walking down the street and she spaced out the world around her as she walked along with him. She could feel what his arm felt like through his green jacket and knew she had made a good choice. It was enough to make her a little giddy as they talked.  
  
Mamoru wasn't sure what to think as he glanced down at the girl hanging off his arm.  
  
Across the street, peaking around the corner of a building, Usagi the Master Spy dressed in her school uniform, a trenchcoat, over sized sun glasses, and a big hat created with the disguise pen watched as they moved off. Several of the people around her decided that they didn't want to be anywhere near her and crossed the street as she growled and glared at Rei and Mamoru as they walked down the street. "What are they doing?! What the heck does she see in that jerk?!" She muttered to herself.   
  
She snuck around the corner and tiptoed down the street, occasionally dodging around a person here and there. From there she followed after them for a couple of blocks, every now and then she would giggle, hide behind a trashcan or pole, and then continue on. It didn't take her long to figure out that they were going to the arcade and stopped about half a block away to watch them as they entered the building and headed up to the second floor where the café was located.   
  
As she adjusted her hat to hide her face she looked around the area and spotted a tree a little ways away with some bushes around it that would provide her with a bit of cover. She ignored the whispering around her as she tiptoed over, dived into the bushes, and reached into her trenchcoat to pull out a pair of binoculars. The disguise pen seemed to provide her with all the equipment she needed to fit the role she was playing. Of course her hair was exactly the same and she failed to realize that it didn't do anything to hide who she was, but that didn't matter. She had some spying to do.  
  
With the binoculars pointed at the second floor of the arcade she watched as Rei and Mamoru took a window seat and started talking. "Rei what are you doing?" She muttered to herself and glared at the spawn of evil sitting across from her friend.  
  
They talked to Motoki's sister for a second before she left to get their order and Usagi growled under her breath as she adjusted the image in the binoculars. She was a bit jealous that Rei could wear a dress like that and look so good. Why did she have to pick a guy that drove her nuts ever time they met? The two of them were going to have a little talk about this later on. After she made sure Mamoru didn't do anything to hurt her friend. "What do I do, what do I do, what in the world do I do?"   
  
"USAGI!"  
  
"AGHAAA!" She yelled and jumped back against the tree and holding a hand over her heart as she gasped for air. Then she looked down and saw that Luna was glaring at her from beneath a bush. "Luna!"  
  
"The disguise pen is for Scout business only! How many times do I have to tell you that?" The black cat snapped, her crescent moon shining in the shadow of the bush.  
  
Usagi crawled back over to the bush and looked around to see if anyone had seen her. She giggled a little as she noticed several people looking in her direction and ducked down behind the bush to hide from them. Then she picked up the binoculars and put them back in her coat. Then as Luna watched the blonde pulled out a length of rope, a pair of hand cuffs, and magnifying glass. The cat sweatdropped as Usagi started to giggle.  
  
"Just what do you think you are doing?" The cat snapped.  
  
"I will make sure that jerk doesn't hurt Rei." She cackled. "He's horrible to me, so the jerk has to be that way to everyone else."  
  
"I kind of doubt that…" Luna said with a bigger sweatdrop forming on her head.  
  
"Ah come on, it's the perfect solution to this." Usagi explained with a maniacal grin on her face. She took a second to adjust her hat because it kept slipping around in between hair buns she had tied up on top of her head. After taking a quick look around, Usagi pulls out the disguise pen and tries to come up with a better disguise. She needed to get into the building.  
  
"Usagi, you can't…" Luna saw this and started to tell her something, but Usagi was already holding the pen up.  
  
"Turn me into a stunning waitress!" It flares and a wave of light flares around her body for a few seconds. "Alright, let's go!" She says.  
  
"Usagi, you can't…" Luna tries to say again, this time a little louder so that the girl might actually listen to her.  
  
"Luna!" She snaps and notices for the first time that she isn't dressed like a waitress. Instead she is dressed in her school uniform again. "What the heck? It didn't work?"  
  
"I've been trying to tell you! The pen can only be used once every few hours before it has to recharge." Luna snapped.  
  
"What a rip off!" The blonde yells and glares down at the cat.   
  
Luna wasn't about to admit that she was glad it had a limited use. Otherwise Usagi would have been using to go to school in her pajamas. Why bother to get dressed when you can just walk around in nothing at all without anyone noticing. "Look, it didn't work, so will you quit spying on them and let them have some time alone?"  
  
"No!" Usagi yells and tip toes over the edge of the bushes and starts to spy again.  
  
Sighing loudly, Luna turns around walks off. "I won't help out with this. You're on your own."  
  
"Okay, Bye!" Usagi says, waving in the cat's general direction. 'I need to be closer. I can't hear a thing they are saying.' She thinks as she moves to another position and looks up.  
  
Suddenly a red wall steps in front of Usagi and she looks up to find Ranma standing in front of her on the other side of the bush. "Hey, what in the world are you hiding in there for? Is there a Youma around her somewhere?"  
  
"Eh heheheh" She laughs. "There's no Youma, just trying to make sure that guy up there doesn't hurt Rei."   
  
Ranma glances up at the second floor of the arcade and notices that Rei is glaring down at them. "Well they seem to be kind of preoccupied…"  
  
"I know what I can do!" Usagi says and bounces up and down a few times happily, and then she suddenly jumps over the bush and grabs Ranma's hand. "Let's go!"  
  
"Huh!?" Ranma asks as she is pulled off her feet and dragged into the building and thought to herself. 'This is one strange day.'  
  
**********  
  
There was this strange feeling in the air as Luna walked along the top of the fence and looked down into the alley below her. She had left Usagi a little ago and decided to take a little while to calm down when she started to sense something weird. At this point she wasn't sure what it was either.   
  
She had been following it as best as she could for the last several minutes, but whatever was causing it was elusive and hard to track. It seemed to remind her of a Dark Kingdom's energy and at first she had thought they were attacking again. But then she had lost track of the signal and couldn't even find it again.   
  
A few minutes later it had happened again and she slowly traced it down the street, though several alleys, a park, until she finally ended up in another alley. On the ground below her was a simple looking cat sleeping behind a trashcan. It had light brown fur with white highlights and as far as she could tell it was completely normal.  
  
Her head snapped up as she suddenly sensed another surge of dark energy and she broke into a run and made her way further along the alley. The alley actually had a couple of dog legs shooting off to the sides behind a building and she jumped off the fence and looked behind the alley. She was a bit surprised to find nothing but a couple of tom cats hissing at each other.  
  
What caught her attention was the fact that one of the cats seemed to have a black aura of power around it as it hissed at the other cat. Luna wasn't sure what was going on, but her hair started to bristle up as she watched the aura snap out and slam into the other cat. It cried out in pain as its body was thrown back into a brick wall and slid to the ground.  
  
"I have to inform the girls about this." She said and turned to go and do just that.   
  
She didn't even get more than a few steps before cats started to land all around her, quickly forming a shield of bodies. They all had a sickly look in their eyes as they glared at her and Luna realized that they were all possessed. She crouched down and hissed at them and tried to find a way to get around them and back to the Crown Arcade.   
  
"Get out of my way. I can help you if you let me go." She snapped at them. She was a bit surprised when one of them answered her.  
  
"You are different." The cat with the dark aura said as it walked up behind her.   
  
Luna gaped at it. She took a second to see that it didn't have a crescent moon on its forehead so she knew it wasn't like her or Ito.  
  
"My master says to kill you." It said as glassy black eyes bored through her mind.  
  
Her eyes narrowed as she realized that the other cat's aura was beginning to writhe and she rolled to the side as it lashed out. The ground where she had been crouching shattered into dust as the aura touched it. Yowling in shock Luna panicked and broke into a run. She vaulted over the wall of cats, bounced off the wall, and landed doing a full sprint.   
  
"&%$#!" Luna yelled as she raced down the alley.   
  
She could sense that the cats were chasing after her as she raced around the corner and headed down the street. All she needed was five minutes alone to call the girls and tell them about this, but the cats wouldn't let her. They were right on her tail as she ran. She ignored the humans as she ran and even ran through their legs if they didn't get out of her way.   
  
The people around her had to scramble to get out of her way as the small army of possessed cats chased her. The lead cat didn't even seem to see the people as it used them to springboard after Luna. She figured it would catch up with her within a matter of minutes if he kept moving like that. So she took a chance, this time watching the traffic in the street around her, and dashed out into the street without warning.  
  
"Aghaaa!" Luna screamed as she dashed right into oncoming traffic.   
  
Squealing tires filled the air as the army of cats entered the street. Luna didn't look back to see what was going on, but from the sounds happening behind her she was positive that a few of them wouldn't be a problem anymore. She made a mental note not to tell the girls about it, they had a thing about killing their enemies. At that moment she had other things to worry about.  
  
Like the large white truck bearing down on her with its horn blaring. She screamed, jumped forward, and let the truck pass over her. Its axle barley missed taking her head off, but she had the presence of mind to notice that there weren't any cars behind the truck. The instant she saw clear sky she broke into a run again and quickly made her way to the other side of the street.  
  
She took a glance behind her and quickly spotted about a dozen cats still chasing her including the lead cat. Luna gasped for air as she ran and tried to think of something to do, but the only thing she could do was find one of the girls. Three of them were at the Crown Arcade, but she was now heading in the wrong direction to get to them. Then she hears something that was almost enough to make her faint in relief.  
  
"Luna!" Sailor Mercury yelled as she stepped in front of the cat.  
  
"Meow!" Luna yelled and jumped into the girl's arms and started to purr loudly.   
  
They stood there as the cats ran up to them and started to fan out. The lead cat's aura formed about it as it glared at them.   
  
Mercury looked down at the cats. "What's going on Luna?"  
  
"That cat there is possessed by dark energies."  
  
"Hold on Luna, we need to get out of here." Mercury said as she crouched and jumped up onto a nearby roof. Kicked off, and roof hopped for the next few minutes and quickly lost the cats. They landed in an empty lot a few blocks away from the Crown Arcade and she took a second to set Luna down on the ground. Then she pulled out her computer and started typing.  
  
"Thank you, Mercury." Luna said as she looked around nervously.   
  
"You're welcome. Those cats were possessed?"  
  
"Yes, at least I think they were."   
  
"I'm not picking them up with the computer."  
  
"Are you getting anything at tall?" Luna asked in surprise as she looked up at the girl.  
  
She didn't answer at first, taking several seconds to double check her readings. "All I'm picking up are about two hundred very tiny moving dark energy signatures."  
  
"Two hundred!" Luna gasped in shock.  
  
"One second, let me expand the search area." Mercury said as she typed for a few seconds. "Now I'm picking up even more of them."   
  
"How many?"  
  
"About a thousand or so, the readings are kind of hard to figure out. They are almost impossible to read as it is. Most of them seem to be at a nearby park."  
  
"We have to tell the others!" Luna yelled in a panic.  
  
Sailor Mercury tapped a button on her computer and sent out an alert to the others to meet her and Luna at the park. Then she read another screen on the computer and looked down at Luna. "The readings are increasing."  
  
They quickly ran out of the lot and headed for the park.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes –   
  
Omake Six:  
  
By C. Rose  
  
"Halt!"   
  
Usagi, dressed in her black leather trenchcoat, clothes, and black glasses turned to see a man standing about ten feet from her. He was wearing the weirdest piece of clothing she had ever seen. A full set of black leather formal wear, complete with a cape and a cane. He was also wearing a pair of wrap around sun glasses.  
  
"Who are you again?"  
  
"Agent Rose, and you are coming with me." He reached into his cape and pulled out a rose. "Or else."  
  
The blonde snorted. "I'm not afraid of a man who tosses around roses." Agent Rose tossed the rose and Usagi screamed as she scrambled out of the way. She watched out of the corner of her eye as it embedded in the side of a nearby car. "You will have to do better than that!" She yelled.  
  
He stepped forward and whipped his cape to the side and sent a dozen roses flying at her. Amazingly enough she stayed calm and dodged out of the way of each rose as it flew by her like a bullet and riddled the car behind her with more holes. Making it look an eccentric vase. Agent Rose growled.   
  
Then a blue haired woman dressed in form fitting leather dropped form out of nowhere and knocked Rose boy out. She turned to slink over to Usagi. "Are you alright?"  
  
Usagi hugged her. "Hi Trinity!"  
  
"I told you to call me Ami." The leather clad girl said with a little blush.  
  
"I like Trinity better."  
  
"Fine fine." Ami said with a wave of her hand as she pulled out a small computer and typed for a second. "Our exit point is a couple blocks down."  
  
"Cool, I'm hungry."  
  
"You are always Hungry."  
  
As they exited the Matrix they sat up and disconnected with the help of a girl with long brain hair in a pony tail. "Morpheus wants to talk to you."  
  
"Hi Mako-chan! I'm hungry!" Usagi yelled and hugged the girl.  
  
Makoto blushed. "I'll fix something up for you."  
  
"Yay!"  
  
Cypher stepped out of the shadows, adjusted her long black hair, and waved at them. "I see you're back."  
  
"Yeah! Mako-chan is gong to make us something to eat!" Usagi told her.  
  
Trinity rolled her eyes. "We have to go and see Morpheus first."  
  
"Alright." Usagi said and followed the leather clad girl out of the room.   
  
"She gets weirder by the day." Cypher said.  
  
"Yeah, but she does a good job." Makoto said as she put on her apron and tied it behind her back.   
  
Just down the hall Usagi and Trinity step into an office and look at the desk where a black cat is waiting for them. It looks up at then. "Well?"  
  
"Everything worked perfectly." Usagi explained.  
  
"I had to save her from Agent Rose." Trinity said.  
  
Usagi frowned at her.  
  
"AGAIN!?" Morpheus yelled and lashed her tail.  
  
"He pops up everywhere I goooo!" Usagi whined.  
  
Suddenly an alarm goes off and Morpheus jumps off the desk as they hear a scream from down the hall. The girls follow after the cat as it runs into the Core room. "What's going on?"  
  
A blond girl peaks out from behind the mess of wires on the other side of the room. "I didn't do it!"  
  
Morpheus looks over at the blinking screen and realizes that the EMP pulse had just killed the matrix. "AGHAAAAAA!!!!"  
  
"I just looked at it." The blond muttered.  
  
Cypher, looking a little disgruntled walks into the room. "It seems that the people that were still in web have somehow managed to survive. Blonde over here managed to pulse the matrix and just kill the robots. It's a friggen miracle."  
  
Usagi hugged her.  
  
"LET GO LET GO LET GO!!!" Cypher yelled and waved her arms. "I DON'T SWING THAT WAY!" 


	14. Chapter 12

Notes: Well it's been a long time since I updated this hasn't it? Well with ch 13 of GO posted I figured it was time to work on something else for a little while. I actually wrote this up pretty quickly, just 3 weeks. A lot faster than normal. I think you will like this chapter quite a bit. A lot of ground is covered, things people have been asking about for a while too.

Please Review!

---------------

Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 12  
Cory D. Rose  
(c) 2004

---------------

Usagi practically dragged Ranma through the doors of the arcade and up to the second floor where the restaurant was located. They got near the top of the stairs and Usagi came to a dead stop, and then very slowly peaked around the corner and into the room. She quickly looked around to see just where Rei and Mamoru were seated, but couldn't find them. She frowned.

"Usagi, what's going on?"

"We have to watch Rei."

"Why?"

"Because that guy is a jerk and I don't want her getting hurt."

Ranma rolled her eyes. "I thought this was a serious situation."

The blonde's girl snapped around to stare through her in a rather disturbing way. "It...is."

Backing up a couple of steps, Ranma just nodded and hoped the girl would buy it. She sighed in relief as Usagi turned back to the dinner. Ranma wasn't sure what was going on, but knew that Usagi had a habit of taking the wrong things seriously and that usually led to some pretty interesting klutz attacks.

Smirking a little, she decided to see what the girl would do. "So what do you think that guy will do to Rei?"

"He insults me all the time and he just isn't good enough for her." Usagi said as she straightened up and casually walked into the restaurant. "I will make sure he doesn't hurt her in the same way." She muttered.

Ranma nodded and turned to leave before Usagi did something strange. "Right."

Her hand reached out, grabbed Ranma's pigtail and dragged her along with her. "Let's see what she's up to!"

"Arrghh!" Ranma yelled.

"Come on and be quiet!" Usagi growled as she made her way over to a booth and tossed Ranma in the other seat. She then looked at the other side of the diner. "There she is..."

"I don't think this is a good idea Usagi."

"Shhh." The Blonde said.

"But..."

"Quiet, I don't want her to know we are here."

"It's a little late for that Usagi." Ranma said, but Usagi didn't appear to hear her.

Ranma sighed and looked around for a way out of the situation, then she spotted just the vict...er, accomplice she needed to make a get away. In the booth on the other side of them, she spotted the class geek, Umino. Those swirlly glasses of his were impossible to forget even if you've only met the guy a few times.

Smiling to herself, Ranma casually slipped below the table and vanished from sight. Usagi didn't even notice as Ranma vanished, though Unizuki noticed and gave Ranma a weird look as she saw the red head slip beneath the table. Ranma then crawled under the booths and reached for a pair of legs.

Seconds later Umino, who was having a shake before heading home and spending the rest of the night in the Sailor Moon Chat room, was suddenly dragged below the table. He didn't have time to yell out as the monster took him down. Unizuki watched his hand clawing at the seat for a second before even that disappeared with a barely heard gurgle.

He froze in shock as he came face to face with Ranma as she glared at him with enough malice to make him start sweating. She leaned in close and stared at him for a second.

"You like Usagi?"

He nodded, fearfully. Agreeing to anything the crazy girl had to say. He wanted live.

"Then this is your lucky day." Ranma whispered back, grinned evilly, and leaned in even closer. "Oh yes, this is your lucky day cause if you don't do as I say, you are in for a world of hurt? Understand?"

Now he nodded frantically, nearly losing his thick classes. He whimpered a bit.

Reaching to the table above them, Ranma grabbed his shake and silently dragged the geek back over to Usagi's table and shoved the geek in the seat across the table from Usagi. Then she placed the shake in the center of the table, tossed in a straw, and quickly crawled out of the room using the 'notice me not' technique.

She liked the blonde, she really did, but she also knew Usagi well enough to know that there was situation building that she didn't want anything to do with. Though she did stick around to watch as Usagi finally took her eyes off Rei and Mamoru for a second and turned around.

Instead of looking across the table, her eyes stopped on the shake and she instantly grabbed a straw. Then she noticed that Umino was also using a straw from the same cup, sitting right across from her. Blushing slightly. Usagi nearly jumped out of the booth in her shock, hear hair standing on end as her jaw dropped to the floor.

Ranma had to give him some grudging respect for even trying such a thing.

"AGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

Giggling, Ranma bounded down the stairs, across the arcade, and out the front door. She skidded to a stop as she suddenly spotted Rei and Mamoru sneaking out the alley way beside the building and quickly jogging down the sidewalk. Ranma even noticed that Rei was dragging Mamoru, who looked bored out of his mind, and looking around to make sure they weren't being followed. Then she spotted Ranma and glared.

Smirking, Ranma just gave her a thumbs up gesture and headed off in the other direction. Rei was still glaring at her as they rounded the corner and vanished from sight, though not quite as bad as before. Ranma ran down the side walk a little and quickly ducked into one of the smaller alleys.

Sure enough Usagi came running out of the arcade's doors and started looking around frantically, her two long pig tails whipping around. She was also blushing brighter than Ranma had ever seen anyone ever blush. The Umino came strolling out of the arcade and moved toward Usagi with a giant grin on his face.

The blonde took off running before Umino even got close to her. The boy had a warped smirk on his face has he stumbled across the street and headed off in a different direction. Smirking again, Ranma figured she's just made the boy's year at the very least.

Once she was sure no one would spot her, Ranma quickly came out of the alley and ran off after Usagi. Even though she knew that the blonde would cause a scene eventually, she wanted to be there to witness it, not be a part of it. The attack poodle had been quite a scene. That one still made Ranma start giggling every time she thought about it.

"Ranma."

She looked around as Luna suddenly jumped up on a nearby wall. "What's up?"

"There's some kind of massive Youma attack happening over at the park. I was just on my way access Central Control to contact everyone."

"Why didn't you just transform and use a communicator."

Luna mumbled something.

"What?"

"I left it at home." She said, blushing a little.

"Heh, your as bad as Usagi."

The cat glared at her. "Go help Ami; she's already on her way."

"Sure, how many are we talking about here?"

"A couple thousand..."

"What?!" Ranma yelled.

Now Luna smirked at her. "Can't handle a few Youma?"

"Don't play that crap with me, I had enough of it back in China and I won't put up with it anymore." Ranma growled. "Which park?"

"The same one we were at this morning."

"Alright, I'm on my way." Ranma said and quickly took off down the street at a dead run. Up in the diner Unizuki looked out the window and wondered what was going on, though she was grinning a little. Then she turned around and went to help some new customers as they came in.

---------------

A number of the buildings in Juban made roof hopping problematic at times because of their size, so Ranma was forced to run along the fences and between buildings as she made her way towards the park. She was a little hesitant as she approached it though. There was this feeling of anger emanating from the park that was nearly overwhelming her senses.

Turning a corner, Ranma ran along the fence line and jumped into the air when she reached the end of the fence. She sailed over the traffic below gracefully as she flipped in mid air and landed on the large stone wall that surrounded the park.

Kneeling down she looked into the sparsely wooded park on the other side. Now that she was right on top of the evil feeling she wasn't sure what to do about it. Normally it was easy enough to just head towards the largest source of negative energy.

It always led to a bad guy, just what she was looking for, but this feeling was completely different than the norm. The evil spirit seemed to fill the whole park and there wasn't one spot where it was larger or smaller than anywhere else.

It just seemed to be everywhere she tried to look. She could also hear the strange lack of noise as the various animals seemed to be making as they moved across the park. That was almost as scary as the possessed animals.

She glanced down and spotted a large group of squirrels in the grass at the bottom of the wall, they were looking at her with glowing red eyes and waiting for her to jump down to the grass. Several of them even eyed the wall and considered jumping up there to get her.

Blinking, Ranma looked them over and realized that all the animals in the park were possessed by the evil spirit. She hadn't really considered that. A few she could understand, but to actually possess all of them was a different story. Then she spotted a flash of light and movement nearby.

Standing up she ran along the wall for several seconds, the squirrels chased after her before she launched into the air, landed on a tree branch, and started tree hopping through the woods. She used her stealthiest techniques as she moved across the park. For some reason she really didn't want to deal with a bunch of possessed squirrels and any other animals she came across.

Then she spotted something and had to stop for just a second. Standing in the shadows, using some large trees for cover, was an old man wearing a simple pair of overalls, shirt, and cap. What caught Ranma's attention was the squirrel sitting on the old man's shoulder.

Like the rest of the ones following her, the animal had red eyes easily seen in the shadow around the old man. They didn't appear to know she was there, but Ranma could see hundreds of construction workers running around in circles out in the parking lot just beyond the trees.

Every animal in the park seemed to be trying to attack them. Even their construction vehicles were taking a beating as a couple of them burned. That one impressed Ranma, she couldn't think of a way for them to start on fire in the first place. Even possessed, they were just squirrels after all and the occasional butterfly.

Ranma considered attacking the guy for a second, but as she was about to move, a memory resurfaced. One of Ami and Rei both yelling at her for not working with the team. And her promise not to try and fight everything by herself.

Cursing silently, Ranma looked around and noticed that flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye again. This time she heard a yell just as the air pressure around the area suddenly changed, turning ice cold as it dropped. Launching off the tree, Ranma quickly make her way through the woods and closed in on her target.

Within a minute she started to find dead squirrels littering the ground, frozen grass, and shattered trees all over the place. All of it coated in a thick layer of frost and Ice. There was only one person she knew that could pull something like this off.

She figured that the trees weren't as safe anymore; they were starting to crack and shatter as she landed on them, so she jumped to the ground and broke into a run so that she could arrive at the source of the disturbance as soon as possible. "SOL CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!!"

In a burst of light Ranma transformed into Starfire, the magical energies adjusting to her body as she ran instead of making her go through the usual transformation set up. The feelings were the same, but Ranma was to focused to worry about them this time. She still felt wonderful, gods did it feel good for just a second, and then she focused on her goal.

The instant her tiara finished forming she launched herself into the air with a mighty jump. Her arms at her sides, her fists angled slight outward, as if she really was flying, eyes flaring with energy, and sailed above the level of the trees. She quickly looked around and could see Sailor Mercury battling a large number of squirrels as they bounded about on the ground below.

Starfire reached the peak of her jump, light reflecting off her tiara as she brought her hands together, and formed a ball of Ki in her hands as she quickly gathered a bit of energy. Then she threw a ball of energy right into a large swarm of possessed squirrels to give Mercury a few seconds to rest. This sent a large number of them flying into the air with a large explosion even as she landed.

Pulling off her tiara she threw it at a large squirrel as it jumped at her, cutting it down and several more of the possessed rodents before it curved back to her. She caught it, and placed it back on her head and turned to Mercury. "You okay?"

"Yes, my powers aren't really offensive, so I've been improvising." She panted out, trying to catch her breath. "I learned how to use my powers to make things really cold. These animals are all over the place and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold out, so I had to find a way to stop them."

"A new attack?"

"More of an adaptation of my normal one actually. I didn't think our powers allowed us to do that."

Starfire shrugged. "I seem to always be adapting my attacks so I'm not that surprised."

"I'll look into it a little after we stop whatever is happening here."

"I spotted a guy back that ways that we may need to take down, he looked like he was in control of the squirrels and even some of the birds. The animals around him were attacking the construction crews that were to start tearing the park down today."

Pulling her computer out, Mercury quickly started running some scans. "There are still way too many of these possessed animals. They have begun to leave the park as well, spreading out into the city, though so far it's only been in small groups." She showed Ranma several points on a city map the little computer screen was displaying.

"Let's stop it at the source and the rest of the animals should be fine."

"We're going to need Moon and Mars in on this I think."

"Last I saw they were a little busy. Mars was on a date and Moon was following her."

"Actually they are in the park right now." Mercury said as she read something on the screen on her computer. "Looks like they are in one of the calmer areas of the park though, I'm not detecting to many of the animals near them yet."

"What are they doing?"

"Well Mars appears to be out on the lake in a boat and Moon is on shore..."

"She's still following her?"

Mercury nodded.

"You know..." Starfire said with a smirk."

"What?"

"You really shouldn't be fighting these things on your own."

"Huh?!" Mercury asked, looking surprised.

The red head smirked a little more. "Well you did make me promise not to fight the monsters on my own, so you shouldn't either."

Mercury gaped at her.

Starfire shrugged as she turned, formed another ball of Ki, and took out another dozen squirrels that were creeping out of the woods behind them. Ranma knew she was killing the little animals, but they were just too dangerous to let them get away with anything. The two of them then spent several more minutes fighting off another wave of animals, this time it was a mix of dogs, cats, and squirrels.

Eventually the attack died down, but there were frozen and unconscious animals spread out on the ground around them. Starfire didn't like the way this situation was going as she glared at all the bodies around her. "We need to find a way to stop the thing possessing these things. There are way to many of these animals dying."

Mercury nodded sadly. "They aren't giving us any choice though."

"I know. Well we might as well alert Mars and Moon at least."

Mercury nodded and hit a button on the communicator that would do just that, before putting it away, and turning back to her computer. "Do you have any ideas on how to stop what's happening, besides beating up the guy you mentioned? It's the old man that takes care of the park by the way."

"That's right; I think you said you knew him?"

Mercury nodded. "I'd like to avoid hurting him."

"No problem, we just knock him unconscious." Starfire said with a smirk. "It should be easy enough."

Mercury glared at Starfire. "That's hurting him."

Starfire whistled a little as she started walking towards the trees.

"STARFIRE!"

---------------

At the lake, Rei was talking a mile a minute as a bored Mamoru sighed quietly, hoping the girl would just go away or shut up at least. He wasn't even rowing the boat that fast, just doing enough to make sure they didn't slow to a stop. If that happened he'd really die of boredom.

"Uh huh." He said.

Rei knew the date was failing, and she was turning desperate, there had to be something they had in common. Anything that would allow her to at least connect to the hunk in front of her. So she blathered on, jumping from subject to subject.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted something strange and didn't quite know what to think at first. The first was Umino walking over to a large bush near the edge of the lake and holding an ice cream cone out to it, and a hand reaching out to take it.

The second thing was a man in a hard hat running down one of the paths on the other side of the lake with about ten squirrels attached to his clothing, and screaming of course. Then the bush next to Umino developed a pair of blonde pig tails in a very familiar style, refocusing Rei's attention.

"Usagi." She hissed.

"Huh?" Mamoru asked, seeing the girl's eyes take on a new, more attractive light as she suddenly stopped blathering at him.

She nearly jumped out of the boat and swam to shore just to yell at her bubble headed friend. Then suddenly remembered that she was there with Mamoru, her hunk, and decided that being with him was more important. She could always give Usagi a piece of her mind later on.

Then her communicator started beeping, just as she turned to grin prettily at Mamoru. 'Someone is going to die' she thought to herself as he heard the beeping sound from her purse.

"Your beeper is going off."

Rei sighed. Grabbing her purse, she opened it and rustled around for a second while trying to think of a way to answer it. Then she decided to just leave it sitting in the purse and looked at it. The emergency button had been pressed to alert them that there was an emergency in the park.

"Just my Grandfather checking up on me." She lied.

Nodding, Mamoru used an oar to swing the little boat around and head them back towards the dock. "There's a phone near the boat house that you can use."

"Great." Rei said, faking a happy smile. Her date was being ruined every step of the way. Someone was going to pay. She grinned a little wider as she heard Usagi suddenly scream and run away from Umino over near the bush.

"Hey, it's meatball head." Mamoru muttered.

Rei giggled. "That's the perfect name for her!"

Mamoru cringed a little.

"WHAAAAAAH!" Usagi yelled in the background. "Not now!"

The boat was quickly tied up the instant they reached the dock and Mamoru jumped out. Rei took a couple of seconds, wondering how she was going to get away from Mamoru and go help with the fight when he looked away.

She turned and saw that several people were starting to be attacked by squirrels and birds. Sending most of the people in the area heading for the exit, but she saw several already collapsed on the ground, their energy drained by the animals.

"What the heck?" Mamoru muttered out loud.

"We have to help those people." Rei said.

"I'll go check on meatball head, you see if that guy is alright." Mamoru said and quickly ran towards where they'd seen Usagi.

Rei growled for a second as he ran off, then shrugged, her date was ruined so why should she be mad that her date just ran off without her. Pulling out her henshin rod, a sphere of fire formed around her and expanded for several yards before it died down and Sailor Mars stood there, fire in her eyes.

"This had better be a real emergency." She muttered as she pulled out her communicator. "This is Mars."

"Hey Mars, sorry about your date." Starfire said cheerily.

"What's going on?"

"Youma possession."

"We're about a quarter of a mile from your present location." Mercury said, it was pretty obvious that she was running. "Just head north, you should spot us eventually. I can triangulate if you want me to."

"I can find you." Mars said.

"It's near the parking lot with all the construction equipment. This should be a fun fight." Starfire said.

"This thing ruined my date, I'm going to kick it's ass!" She yelled.

"Sounds like a plan to me, just hurry up and get here before I kick it's ass instead.

"Starfire!"

"Hehehehe." She laughed.

---------------

Suddenly all across the park the animals started falling over, dropping out of trees, and twitching for several seconds as they suddenly lost all their energy, even dropping unconscious in mid attack. For several seconds no one can move as the animals stopped moving, before they all turned to get away from the strangeness and then dropped unconscious themselves as they got drained.

The Caretaker watched from his hiding spot in the trees as energy swirled around him in an angry red haze. His eyes glowing with a bright white light as the energy is ripped from his body and Patasosu formed a few feet away, she is a plant like creature with long green hair similar to grass, has pointed ears, and a white facial tattoo similar to a flower.

The Caretaker groans as she finishes forming and he drops at her feet, barely breathing. She laughs insanely. "Your energy is mine!"

"Not so fast ugly!" Sailor Moon yelled as she enters the area at a dead run, beating everyone there. "You have caused enough pain to the poor animals of this beautiful park."

The Youma glared at the girl. "Master said a group of weird girls might interfere."

"Then you are about to get the surprise of your life Youma." Mercury says as she steps out of the trees several yards to the right of Sailor Moon. Then half a second later Starfire jumped out of the trees, flips over all of them, and lands in a crouch, the jewel in her tiara flaring with light.

"I'm going to kick your ass!"

Moon and Mercury both formed a huge sweatdrop and gaped at Starfire as the red headed princess slowly stood and took a simple combat stance and grinned evilly.

"Fire Soul!"

A fire ball flew out of the woods behind the Youma and slammed into its back, knocking it forward a couple of steps, but didn't appear to do it any harm to the thing. Patasosu just grins as she regained her balance. "If that is all you girls have, I'm going to suck you dry and leave your husks here rot. Just like this old man."

"Ewww!" Moon yells, grabbing for her tiara.

"Mars, attack form the side, everyone else help out!" Starfire yelled as her own tiara lights up. "SILVER METAL STARLIGHT!!"

A beam of silver energy fired from the jewel in Starfire's tiara and blasted a hole right through the Youma's shoulder. It screamed in pain and staggered back several paces and grasped its shoulder in pain. Then the arm just fell off and exploded into a cloud of dust as it hits the ground. Patasosu stared at the stump for a second in shock just as Sailor Mars hit it with another Fire Soul, this time causing a little damage.

Mercury had her computer out in an instant and started to scan the monster. "It's not dead, in fact I think its playing possum..." Mercury called out.

"So much for playing around." The Youma said as it turned its head toward then and it's hair lashed out, tangling Moon and Mercury instantly, at the same time the lost arm regenerates. "Come to mama!"

"Help!" Moon yelled as she struggled against the thick strands that were holding her.

Spinning, Ranma pulled her tiara off, charged it, and threw it right at the strands of hair holding the girls. Right as a large squirrel jumped onto her face and started biting. Starfire yelled in shock and started running around flailing her arms around.

She did succeed in cutting the vines and it only took Moon and Mercury a few seconds to free themselves, but that was enough time for the Youma to call out to various creatures in the area. In seconds the whole area was full of bugs, butterflies, bees, even roaches as they swarmed over and around the girls.

Patasosu just started to laugh as the girls screamed and started to run around trying to keep away form the bugs. Her laugh was interrupted as said squirrel suddenly went head first into her mouth. Gagging she only had a second to react before Starfire was there, her fist pulled back and ready to take her down.

Pain blossomed all over the Youma's body as Starfire's blurred attacks swirled around her at high speed. Then Ranma stopped for a split second, crouching down as he leg swept Patasosu off her feet and she received an elbow smash to the forehead.

Starfire flipped back as the girls lined up.

"Fire Soul!"

"Moon Tiara Action!"

"Silver Metal Starlight!"

"Ice Spray!"

Patasosu screamed as she was obliterated from existence. Then a large ball of light formed over the same spot as her body and suddenly sent a wave of magical light in all directions. The girls stood their ground as the energy flowed around them like a heavy wind, making their hair and clothing flutter around for several seconds. Then it ended and a silence descended over the area.

Moon and Mars turned to Mercury. "Ice Spray?"

The blue haired girl blushed a little. "Needed an offensive attack."

"I always wondered if you had one." Mars said and smiled.

"Actually it's just a Shabon Spray modified a little. I took Starfire's example and adapted my magic a little."

"That was so cool!" Moon explained and stared at Mercury with wide innocent eyes filled with awe.

Mercury blushed again and turned away shyly.

"You!" Mars yelled and pointed at Starfire. "That was my fight!"

"You got a shot in!" She yelled back.

"I told you it was mine!"

"You snooze you lose!"

"You...you...you...arrggh!"

Starfire smirked.

"My date!"

The girls jumped as Mars turned and ran form the clearing.

Starfire watched her for a second before turning to look up in a nearby tree as Tuxedo Mask jumped to the ground and quickly vanished. For a second she considered going after the guy, but then decided that now wasn't the right time. He needed to find out just why Tuxedo Mask showed up every time they went into battle. Sailor Moon and Mercury didn't see him either. She wasn't sure what to think of the guy or why he even bothered to show up.

If he wanted to help out he would need to improve his fighting abilities considerably.

"You!" Usagi yelled as she powered down. "You...you...you...abandoned me!"

Ranma and Ami powered down and Ranma started to laugh nervously. Usagi started to stalk towards her getting angrier by the second. "Well you see, I was.."

"How could you leave me with Umino?!" Usagi wailed and burst into tears. "He's been following me around all afternoon!"

"Well he's not here now, so things are alright, aren't they?" Ranma asked, hoping it would calm her down a little.

"Ranma..." Usagi growled angrily.

"Usagi calm down, Ranma apologize to her this instant." Ami said, a little forcefully.

"I'm sorry Usagi." Ranma said, reluctantly.

"Okay!"

Ranma gaped at her.

Giggling, Usagi ran off after Rei. "I'll talk to you later! I've got to protect Rei!"

"What just happened?"

"Usagi tricked you." Ami said and giggled a little.

"This just isn't my day." Ranma said, then heard a groan and spun around to see the old caretaker staring to get to his feet. "Ah, we forgot about someone."

Ami ran over and helped him to his feet.

"Ah, Ami, what's going on?"

"Nothing, sir."

"But I remember this thing." He mumbled.

"Just a dream sir, just a dream."

He nodded slowly. "Of course, nothing like that could happen in reality. Thank you Ami." He said. "I need to finish that bed of flowers over on the east side of the park."

They watched him slowly walk off shaking his head.

"Wow, you lied." Ranma said, impressed.

"I do know how." Ami said.

"Yeah, but I've never actually heard you lie before. You're good at it that sounded so natural."

Ami blushed. "Thank you."

"What do you think they will do about the park now?"

"I'm not sure, but with the equipment wrecked, they may cancel the project."

"Good, I like this park." Ranma said. "It's quiet, just the way I like things."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I met a girl the other day that wanted me to train her in martial arts, today's her first lesson."

"Oh?"

"Her name is Makoto and she showed some potential the other day. Today's lesson is an evaluation really. I need to see what level she's at before I can start teaching her."

"Need any help?"

Ranma shook her head. "Naw, we're just going to be sparing with each other for an hour or so. Then after that I need to get cleaned up to go and meet my Mom."

The blue haired girl nodded. "Well let me know if you need any help. I think I should run home too, I have some studying to do for next month's chemistry test."

Ranma blinked as she walked off and muttered under her breath. "What test?"

---------------

The Scout transformation seemed to have some kind of cleansing magic to it, and Ranma had noticed it after transforming back to her normal self a couple of times. Her clothing hadn't been in the best of shape when the battle started, but after transforming back it didn't smell anymore and looked as if it was freshly laundered. She decided to ask Ito about it when she got back to the camp site.

That reminded her of Shampoo and Perfume. She hadn't seen them all day and she wondered where the two girls were. Shrugging, Ranma ran down the street, jumped up to a street light, and used that as a jumping off point as she landed silently on top of a bus as it moved through the thick downtown traffic.

Sitting down, she relaxed a bit as it took her across town. Eventually it came to the area she needed so she jumped off, landed on the roof of a nearby building, and headed north for a little while. Then she spotted the large open lot next to where she had met Makoto a few days before.

A hop, flip, and a jump and she landed in the center of the lot and smirked at the ease that she pulled off the Olympic level move without even breaking a sweat. Those pansy couldn't keep up with her if they put in a year of training and had to cheat, she'd still beat them hands down. She did a few flips and started to limber herself up for the upcoming practice session since she didn't think she was going to get any use out of it herself.

Then she heard something she hadn't heard in some time.

"Meow."

A cat. Her hair stood up as she turned and glared toward some boxes on the far side of the lot and she spotted the little gray haired devil with it's pointy teeth. Gasping for air she managed to throw off her ten year flee reflex.

Back in the park there had been a few of them around, but they hadn't really mattered when she was fighting. Here though, it was a little different. She seriously considered throwing a Ki blast at the little pest. Ito may have 'cured' her of the Neko-ken fear, but it was taking forever for her to get over the reflexes caused by the training.

Then the cat turned and suddenly ran off before Ranma could burn all the fur from its body and get rid of the thing. Seconds later Makoto, dressed in a green loose fitting Gi ran into the lot, spotted her, and ran over. "Ranma!"

"Hi Makoto!"

"You made it!"

"Yep, was nearly late though, got into a fight earlier."

"Who was it?"

"Just some jerk in the park, he was hurting the animals so I stopped him."

"Good for you!" She said, grinning slyly.

"Well let's get to work and see what you can do." Ranma said, focusing on Makoto.

Makoto instantly turned serious as Ranma her go through a series of Kata, each one more difficult than the last and pushing her limits. Standing off to the side Ranma quickly evaluated what she was seeing and was a little disappointed. The girl had a lot of moves, but she didn't seem to know that she was building up a number of bad habits as she practiced.

Most of them were because she didn't really have anyone to fight against though, but the rest were just sloppy work. Ranma could remember the old man beating her up every time she started to slip into a bad habit. It was obvious that Makoto didn't have a teacher around that could point such things out.

"You just do this as a hobby right?" Ranma asked.

She glanced over. "Well, not really, I put in two to three hours of practice a day."

Ranma nodded slowly. "It shows, but you don't have anyone to spar against do you?"

"Not really, though I do go down to this dojo ever now and then and practice against the cute guys there." She said blushing to the roots of her hair.

Smirking a little, Ranma ignored the blushing girl's comment and focused on the training. "Well you have a few bad habits developing, and one big one."

She looked a little shocked and straightened up. "What?"

"Well the biggest one is the Kata themselves. The most obvious mistake is that you don't do them exactly the same, so the move isn't really mastered yet. When you throw a punch it's always at a slightly different angle, a little high, wide, or low and rarely identical to the last one you threw. That's what the board is used for, to teach that accuracy." Ranma explained. "Punching bags and speed bags are fine, but they teach speed and power, not accuracy and impact resistance."

Looking a little dejected, Makoto nodded and started to throw more punches as Ranma watched for several minutes. Now that the girl was focusing on her punches she was improving already, barely straying from her mark and gaining about twice the amount of power.

"Excellent, you are focusing more than you were earlier." Ranma said. "Now start on the Kata again and focus on them in exactly the same way to make sure you pull them off exactly."

Makoto nodded, sweating a little. From then on Ranma was constantly stopping her in mid kata to explain why a move had to be performed a certain way, why she had to hold her wrist at a slight angle, or adjusting her foot work for a kick. Nearly an hour later Makoto finished her most well known kata and collapsed to the ground gasping for air, sweat dripping off her face.

Looking pleased, Ranma just nodded. "You see what I mean about mistakes? You need to be able to recognize when you are making them, even to the slightest degree so you can work them out of your form. A technique must be performed without thought, just executed perfectly, you think about the fight, not the move you are using, only what it will do."

"Yes...sensei." The brown haired girl panted.

"Now for the next level." Ranma said as she sat down. "Please copy my position. We are going to work on your breathing, it's quite obvious that no one has ever taught you the value of breath control."

Makoto groaned a little as she examined the odd way Ranma was sitting, as if she was trying to sit like a proper lady in one of those movies. "Um..."

"Looks strange doesn't it?" Ranma said with a smirk. "This position makes you straighten your spine and tense all the muscles in your shoulders and stomach. From here we can begin the basics of breath control and from there to meditation, a core technique used to harness a person's full strength."

"I know how to meditate already."

"Good, then please begin and use this position, I'll be correcting you as find your center."

She nodded, forcefully regaining control of her breathing, much to Ranma's interested view of her heaving breasts. Ranma was just glad the girl was wearing a heavy duty support bra or the things would have been all over the place while the girl was practicing, just like hers were at times. She shuddered and focused on Makoto again.

The girl was good a meditation, she was already in a deep trance after only a few minutes, excellent. Ranma, who was always holding her center, knew if Makoto was going to be any good at Anything Goes she had to master the next step. "Excellent, much better then I expected."

Grinning, Makoto opened her eyes and lost her center.

Ranma sighed. "Alright, the next step is to hold your center while moving around."

She gaped at him. "I've never heard of that one before."

"You leaned at one of those local dojo didn't you?"

"Well sorta, I've trained all over the place, at a couple of temples, from roaming masters, and a few others like what we are doing."

"Oh? How come your still not with them?"

"I move around a lot." She explained nervously, not looking Ranma in the eye like she had been.

It was an odd answer, but Ranma wasn't to concerned with it even though it was quite obvious that she didn't want to talk about it. "Well this is a secret that you have to learn. Once you can stand up and gain your center, you have to be able to regain it in an instant if you lose it. Over the next few days I want you to spend as much time as you can doing just that. Letting it go and regaining it as fast as you can. Don't sit down and do it either, stay on your feet, or sit in a regular chair and do it until you can do it from any position."

They spent another twenty minutes going over that, she even had Makoto perform several simple moves while trying to keep her center. She couldn't do it, but Ranma could see her improving a little more every time she tried. That was exactly what she as looking for. They kept it up for a little while longer before Ranma called it a day.

"Very good, a few more days like that and we can begin the real training." Ranma said happily.

"Real training? What the heck was all that we just did?" Makoto complained. She was wore out, sore, in dire need of a bath, and feeling rather useless cause Ranma hadn't really shown her any new moves. Just corrections and a different way to breath and use her center.

"That was just foundation work, to learn my style you have to have a good beginning to work from. A lot of the moves have to be instinctive, once you get that down here in a week or so we can move onto the cool stuff."

Makoto just nodded, she did have a lot of practice to put in if she wanted learn more. "Want to come back to my place for dinner, I always make too much. As a kind of payment for these lessons?"

Ranma considered for a second, then noticed the time. "Usually I would say yes in an instant, but I'm going to meet my Mom tonight, so I can't."

The girl suddenly looked a little sad, but Ranma wasn't sure why, then she perked up a little. "I'll save some and bring it with me tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you tomorrow for another lesson and work on holding your center, it's the most important of all the moves I showed you today."

Nodding, Makoto headed home and Ranma launched to a nearby rooftop and took off at a run before the girl could say anything else.

---------------

Dreams can come at odd times, usually in the middle of the night when they are the easiest to see, but sometimes they come even during the day. When the Youma in the park was defeated Nephlite was shocked, almost catatonic really. He had used up twice as much energy on that Youma than any of the others used to date. It was supposed to be unstoppable, and yet those blasted girls still managed to find and defeat it with relative ease!

He was sure that this operation would bring in a large amount of energy for Queen Beryl. Even if the human was saved, Patasosu should have been able to drain all the animals and send that to back to him. Instead he'd lost it all, ever little tiny bit of energy gathered and everything he'd used to amp the Youma's power.

He was a dead man.

That thought rang over and over in his head as he stared at the wall. Even Jedite's missions usually broke even when they failed. Nephlite couldn't think of a way to appease Queen Beryl's wrath, she was going to blast him out of existence just for failing her and losing so much energy. He shuddered and recalled a large number of the executions he's witnessed over the years.

Even Jedite's punishment in the Pit would be tame compared to what she would do to him for failing. Nephlite nearly started to hyperventilate as he started to panic, there was no way he would just sit back and let her kill him, no way in hell. There had to be a way to appease her wrath. THERE HAD TO BE!

He grabbed his head and screamed out his frustration and a vision appeared before his eyes. All he could do was stand there, his eyes wide and wild, as it played out before him. He was in a bedroom of some kind, sort of plain, though comfortable and messy as hell.

There were several dresses tossed about on the floor along with books stacked against the wall in large piles. These were covered in more clothing, shirts, dresses, panties, and other things he didn't want to think about. He wasn't even sure why he was supposed to meet the girl here in the first place. They could have met down in the courtyard easily enough.

Nephlite twitched as the memory played out, and got a flash of red just as the world faded around him and he collapsed to the floor. A silver glow formed around his body causing his clothing to smoke for several seconds before he lay still, his eyes open, and occasionally twitched.

The vision continued as he turned and saw the unmade bed with its curtains pulled to the sides. Suddenly a something grabbed his hand and gave a yank and twist and his feet left the floor.

"ARRGGH!!"

He barely noticed that he was on the floor half a second later, a small foot on his neck as his arm was savagely twisted to the side. A red haired girl, her face was a little fuzzy and hard to really see, glared down at him with glowing silver eyes. Her hair was waving around as an aura of some kind surged around her body.

"Who are you? This is my room and I know I didn't invite you in here." She snarled. The crescent moon on her forehead glowed as she looked down on him. She had on a simple white dress, stockings, and a pair of simple slippers. And, as far as he could tell, magically enhanced strength as she nearly ripped his arm out of it's socket. "WELL?!"

"I was told to..." Nephlite started to say, but she twisted his arm and he yelled out.

"So a pervert has come to me room, well you will learn why that is such a bad idea...pervert." She said the name with all the feeling of a frozen tundra.

"Princess, it's not nice to manhandle the help." An elder voice said with a dry laugh.

"He's a...Pervert."

Nephlite gulped and looked to the side to see an old woman walking into the room with a cane. "Help."

"Such a man is unworthy of you Princess, you should throw him back and try for something better." She said with a cackle.

The Princess gave him an evil smile. "I think your right old crone."

He paled as she suddenly took her foot off his neck, yanked hard, and lifted him into the air. Yelling out as she spun him around her head, he suddenly found himself flying, right out the window. That was when he remembered that they were on the second floor of the palace.

"AAAAHHH!!" He yelled as his body arched through the air and the girl's laugh rang out like an evil cackle.

Sploosh!

He landed right in the large fountain in front of the palace and thanked all the gods it was deep enough to break his fall with a minimum amount of damage. Crawling out of the fountain a slipper hit him in the head and bounced off, landing in the fountain. He looked up just a second one slammed into him. The Princess was throwing things at him.

"PERVERT!"

"That spoiled little..." He snarled under his breath.

"The Princess is quite spirited this morning, Lord Nephlite."

Turning, he found himself looking at the head of the Royal Guards, the guy looked like he was about to start laughing. "Sir?"

"Well get back up there, you do have to teach her how to fight properly."

Nephlite sighed and headed back for the main entrance to the Palace. This was going to be a chore, he thought to himself.

---------------

"Princess I have to teach you how to use a sword properly."

"Not gonna waste my time!"

"You must learn!" Nephlite yelled.

She decked him and he dropped unconscious as his head hit the wall.

She tossed him over the bed.

She elbowed him in the forehead and drop kicked him out the door to her room where he slammed into the wall and fell to the floor in a hail of debris.

A knee to the jaw.

An uppercut so strong that he bounced off the ceiling.

'All that in just the first week', he thought to himself as he drained a bottle of hard liquor at a bar several blocks from the Palace. "This might take a while."

---------------

"Now little one, you need to know how to use one of these to defend against them." Serenity said lightly.

"Feh."

"Language Dear, you are a proper lady after all."

She snorted. "Feh, this sucks."

"Ranko." She admonished lightly.

Hanging her head the girl just sighed and nodded. "I still think this is useless, the guy is a wimp."

"Lord Nephlite is one of the four Guardians of Earth and has special magical powers that make him worthy to teach a girl of your standing, my daughter."

"Feh." The red head said and held the wooden practice sword as if it was something disgusting. "Let's get this waste of time over with, I've got better things to do."

Several feet away Nephlite had to restrain himself from turning the girl over his knee and spanking her. One does not spank a Princess, one does not spank a Princess, one does not spank a Princess. He repeated it over and over in his head and just glared at her.

Serenity's smile was a little strained as she led them out to the practice yard behind the Palace where several other practice areas were set up. "Have fun dear."

"Sure mom."

"Now Princess, I would like you to hold the sword like this, it will help improve your griping strength." Nephlite said, falling into teacher mode.

She glared at him and suddenly tossed the wooden blade at him, he caught it, a reflex really. Then her fist hit him right in the cheek and his world exploded in pain as the blow blew him off his feet and he twisted around and crashed to the ground.

"Well I guess a sword is good as a distraction if nothing else." The Princess said with a mocking laugh as she used her foot to flick the wooden sword into the air and catch it. Then she spun it around a few times to show that she did know a few things about the blade, then walked off as several men started to laugh at Nephlite.

Nephlite groaned and wondered how many teeth he had left, a couple of them were loose.

---------------

"I heard you've been given the 'privilege' of training Princess Ranko." Zoicite said as he and Kunzite sat down next to Nephlite at the bar. They gazed at the four empty bottles next to him.

Nephlite laughed. "You could say that."

"What seems to be the problem, we trained her and she was as nice as can be all things considered." Kunzite said as he poured himself a drink.

"She attacked me that first day and has been doing it ever since. I can't even figure out why."

"Did you insult her?" Zoicite asked.

"Nope, I was told to meet the girl in her room so we could start on sword practice."

"I heard she talked a couple of the Commanders into showing her the basics last year when she was training in hand to hand."

"Oh sure, now someone tells me." Nephlite muttered and drank straight out of his fifth bottle.

"We can try and talk to her if you want?" Zoicite said.

"I doubt you can do anything, she seems to hate me for some reason."

"We'll find out." Kunzite said.

"Thanks guys."

---------------

Nephlite smirked a little as his two friends dragged themselves out of the fountain and dodged flying shoes. "Well?"

"You're on your own pal, see ya." Zoicite said quickly as the two men ran for cover.

"This is going to be a long assignment."

"COME BACK AND TAKE YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE MEN!" The Princess screamed from her balcony as she pulled a bow and arrow from nowhere, the arrow tip was on fire. "COWARDS! I'LL TEACH YOU TO PLAY WITH A GIRLS' HEART! PERVERTS SUFFER MY WRATH!"

Standing beside her, Ranko's sister Serenity nodded her head and crossed her arms, glaring at the men. "Get'em! Get'em! Get'em!"

---------------

With a loud gasp of air Nephlite woke up on the floor and groaned as he sat up. He was back in his house and the vision was finally over. For some reason he even felt as if the Princess had just finished beating him up. Slowly climbing to his feet, he staggered around as his head started to pound. His jaw hurt for some reason.

"Memories..." Nephlite mumbled as he made his way to the kitchen and got himself something to drink.

He still wasn't sure why he was having them, but they were getting more and more informative and a bit painful. He really couldn't see anyone's faces, but he recalled names and actions almost perfectly. Even his exile to the Dark Kingdom hadn't been this bad and he had a feeling they were only going to get worse.

Then he stopped and started to make himself something to drink. "Vespa, she should have contacted me by now."

His second Youma hadn't reported in yet but it was supposed to keep a rather low profile. Turning he sat the glass of wine down and quickly made his way across the house and back into his chamber. He had to find out where she was and if she had any energy for him to send onto Beryl, maybe using her wasn't such a waste of time after all. If the Scouts had found her then she was more than likely dead, but she was still his last hope for another chance.

The instant he was in the room his magic swirled around him and he sent out his call to the Youma. "Vespa!"

"Master." She responded in his mind.

"How is the energy collection going?"

"Very well, I've managed to slowly accumulate almost twice as much as I expected."

Nephlite was surprised. "How?"

"I've been draining stray animals, they are all over the city, in the parks, subway tunnels, abandoned buildings, everywhere."

"No humans?"

"Several, but I'm more careful when I drain them because it's more noticeable." She explained.

"Send me the energy, I need to report to Queen Beryl."

"Yes sir."

A large yellowish ball of energy started to form in front of him seconds later and he started to focus his magic on it. It didn't have the power that human energy seemed to have, but it could easily be used for their needs. Bringing his will to bare he turned the energy into a crystal form that he could present it to his Queen.

"Excellent Vespa, keep going and get as much as you can."

"Yes master." She said and was gone.

With a burst of dark light Nephlite vanished as well and the house was empty.

---------------

As she arrived at the campsite, Ranma practiced a couple of flips as she jumped off the roof of the house. The three tents were still set up just the way she'd left them that morning. Stretching a little she allowed herself to relax as she walked over to her bag and pulled it out from behind the tree.

A quick check showed that Ito still hadn't returned, but Ranma wasn't worried about the red furred cat. Ito could take care of herself. At the bottom of her pack she kept a good set of clothing she picked up while at the Amazon Village.

Shampoo had helped her pick it out, along with over half the girls in the village that wanted to tease her. The only problem was that Ranma hadn't ever worn it for anything. Sure she had modeled it once or twice, but other than that it wasn't being used for anything.

Frowning, Ranma started to have second thoughts about wearing the thing. Sure it wasn't really all that girly, it even had pants, but it still showed her off as a girl. The seamstress had taken a lot of time to make sure the cut showed off Ranma's breasts when she wore it. Ranma could remember that she giggled a lot when she did it too, but never understood just why.

The outfit sure wouldn't help her with her mother though, she wanted a Man Among Men, a son, the best Ranma could come to that at the moment wasn't even close. Sure she still liked girls, quite a bit, but that didn't really count as far as she was concerned. Setting the outfit in her lap she grabbed her bathing supplies, some money, and closed the pack back up.

Rolling everything up in a bundle, she hid the pack again, this time in a different spot, and headed for the wall. No acrobatics this time, she simply hopped over the wall and headed down the street. She had a couple of things to take care of before she went to the Saotome Home.

The store she was looking for was one of those small, nearly unnoticeable types that people tended to ignore unless they knew exactly where it was. Ranma smirked as she stepped inside and glanced around. She'd found the store just a few days before while wandering around after dark, when she was having problems sleeping and went out to test her odd eye sight.

She still found it weird to walk around at midnight and still be able to see things perfectly. The store itself carried a wide variety of items, including food, weapons, and any other oddities its customers might want. The old man that ran the place never seemed to sleep either cause he was open all the time, but she didn't worry about it to much. Anyway, the old fart wouldn't say why he was always open, just that it allowed him make more money.

What she wanted was near the center of the store sitting majestically on the its own shelf. A Crystal carving of a large cat that worked like bunch of prisms molded together. She examined it for any signs of damaged before she decided that it would be the perfect gift for her mother.

The old man wandered out of the back room several seconds later knowing that Ranma wanted to buy something. He grinned walked over and eyed Ranma like a prized student.

"Ah Ranma, how are you today."

"I'm good, Sir."

"How can I help you?"

"I'd like to buy this?"

He simply nodded. "A fine piece, would you like me to wrap it?"

"Yes, and I'd like a large bowl of Curry too." She grinned. "I haven't eaten all day and I'm very hungry."

He laughed. "Of course, it's always food and something else."

Ranma laughed a little. "I guess."

"How has your schooling been going?"

"I haven't been able to attend for a few days, but I'll be heading back here pretty soon."

"Oh?"

"Had some family business to take care of."

"Of course." He said as he finished wrapping the statue at the counter, handed her a bowl of curry, and rang up Ranma's purchase. "Will I be seeing you again tonight?"

"Ah, I don't think so. I have an appointment to take care of this afternoon and I think I'll be there till tomorrow at least."

"Ah well, you are my best customer."

Ranma laughed. "I'm your only customer."

The old man just grinned as Ranma stepped outside.

Just a few minutes later Ranma had the statue stuffed into her subspace pocket along with her extra outfit. She sat her bathing supplies down on a table set up in front of the small store and quickly ate her snack. Taking out the scroll Happosai had given her, she quickly reviewed it once more.

She was pretty sure she had the two moves down, but she knew she would still have to fight the old man to prove she could truly fight. He wouldn't play with her like he did before, he'd beat her unconscious or strip her clothing if she held back any of her skill. If that happened she would be thrown out of the school.

Ranma didn't like the thought of that at all. It meant she would have to find some other school and learn all it's secrets before she could be considered a master. A teacher. Sighing, she put the scroll away and quickly finished her snack.

Returning the bowl to the old man she headed down the street until she entered the bath house. Paying the desk girl, she hesitantly headed for the girls side with more than a little apprehension. Every time she did this she felt like a pervert getting ready to ogle the girls.

She stepped into the locker room and ignored the other girls standing about the room. Keeping her head down she quickly found a locker near the door and undressed. Tossing it inside she casually reached behind her back and pulled out her second outfit and placed it in the locker.

Taking her bathing supplies she wrapped a large gray towel around her body and headed into the bathing area. She could feel several people watching her as she walked into the room. Most were casual, but a couple felt hostile to her. Glancing around the room she couldn't see anyone that wanted to start a fight, so she just focused on cleaning herself up.

Sparing with Makoto hadn't been that hard, but she hadn't bathed in a few days so she was somewhat dirty, even though the transformation tended to clean her up, she still felt dirty. Grabbing the soap she quickly started to wash herself from head to toe, washed her hair, and took care of a couple other things that she didn't like to think about. She really, really didn't want to get another infection down there at a time like this.

Then just as she poured water over her head to rinse the soap out of her hair the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She frowned and did something she hadn't been forced to do in a very long time. From a sitting position she launched into the air and did a casual side ways flip that carried her the length of the bathing area.

She landed in a fighting stance with soap and water dripping from her head. Her knees slightly bent, her eyes cold as ice as she got a look at a ninja wearing a deep red uniform as she dropped from the ceiling. Obviously female, the ninja slowly stood up and turned towards her with a large shovel like weapon in her hand. The stool Ranma had been using was split in half as if it was cut with a hot knife.

"Ranma." The Ninja said, identifying Ranma.

The girl's eyes were familiar, but Ranma wasn't sure who she was. After Jusenkyo she had traveled quite a bit and made a number of enemies and friends, but none of the ninja she knew worked like this. "What'ya want and how do you know who I am?"

"My family has connections and they know of your training trip and a the stop at Jusenkyo. I don't care about that, I just want your head for breaking a promise."

Ranma growled. A number of the customers were beginning to edge their way out of the bath and head for the lockers. This was nerima though, so a couple of older women sat around and ignored the whole thing as they finished washing up. That was fine with Ranma, she didn't want them to be harmed in the cross fire and the others would have to take care of themselves.

"I haven't broken any promises."

The ninja narrowed her eyes and Ranma dropped and rolled to the side just as two small things flew at her. The embedded themselves in the wall with a 'thunk' sound that rattled the nearby window. They were little squares with handles attached to them that looked damned familiar, but Ranma didn't have enough time to think about them.

"Cut it out, there is no need for us to fight." Ranma said, knowing that if she had to Starfire could end this fight in a second. That was only as a last resort though.

"Once a Saotome, always a Saotome and a betrayer." The Ninja snarled and lunged forward with the large shovel.

Ranma jumped into the air and used the girl's head as a spring board to get some distance between them. "I ain't no Saotome!"

"Die &$#$!"

Running, Ranma grabbed several wooden buckets and threw them at the girl, but she used the shovel to block most and simply split the others in half and let them clatter to the floor. Ranma flared her aura, shoved her hands forward, and burst of air fired form her. "Push Wave!"

"What the hell?!" The Ninja yelled as a giant gust of wind picked her up and tossed her into the large furo behind her. She landed with a massive splash, but not before she tossed off a couple more of the small throwing darts.

Cursing, Ranma felt her shoulder explode in pain. She ripped the thing out and threw it at the girl, but she just caught it as she stood up with water falling offer her body. "Gotcha, now your poisoned."

Now Ranma was starting to get angry. Her aura flared even higher and there was a sizzling sound as she burned the poison out of the wound and stopped the blood flow. "Don't think you will win that easily."

"DIE TRAITOR!" She yelled, jumped in the air, and brought the large shovel down on the tile just as Ranma scramble out of the way on all fours.

"We don't have to fight."

"I will have my revenge!" She yelled.

Ranma growled as she came to her feet, she hung her head for a second and then slowly lifted her eyes to glare at the Ninja. Her eyes were ice cold. "I warned you and gave you a chance to talk this out."

"DIE FOR RUINING MY LIFE!"

Ranma's stance changed while the Ninja was in mid jump, she took a step forward just as the weapon would have hit and cleaved her in half. Once inside the girl's guard she didn't even bother to talk as she whispered Amaguriken. She simply blurred from sight and the ninja started yelling as her body blossomed with pain.

The final punch took the girl across the face, the force ripping her mask off, and sending her body flying through a nearby wall with a halo of long brown hair around the girls head as she crashed out into the street with a hail of wood.

Ranma stepped through the hole and stalked out to the girl, picking up the fallen shovel and twisted it into large knot. Then she tossed it back on the ground and stomped on it a couple of times. Several women from the baths were outside watching in wide eyed fascination as Ranma walked over to the girl, grabbed her by the hair, and lifted her up so they could look each other face to face.

"Explain, or it gets worse." Ranma said in a voice as cold as her eyes.

"I will kill you, now, or later. My honor demands your death you bastard, traitor, liar, betrayer. I will kill you for ruining my life."

Taking a close look at the girl, Ranma had to admit that the long brown hair she was holding was familiar, but she couldn't place it. Glaring at the girl she let go and let the head fall to the ground with a thump. "I've got no idea who you are, but I'm not a killer unless I'm forced to be one. Don't push me cause there will not be a next time." Then she drew her fist back and punched the girl unconscious with one blow.

Ranma really hated to admit it, but when it came to girls the Amazons really had taught her not to hold back. It was just to dangerous not to. So she turned around and stalked back inside to grab her bath supplies, rewrapped her dropped towel, and blushed a little.

She tried not to think about what it looked like to everyone to have a small red headed girl walking around naked in the street beating up people in a ninja outfit. Cologne had taught her that even such small things like had a weird effect on people, but Ranma couldn't think of a way her fight would be missed judged and just shrugged it off.

She ignored it for the most part, the ninja had forced her hand and being naked didn't bother her that much. She would just have to hope that no one really got a good look at her. Taking a second before she got dressed she bound her wounded shoulder and channeled some more Ki to it so the bleeding would stop, that punch had reopened it a little.

It would take a few days to heal, so she wasn't worried about it. She had taken worse in some of the recent Youma fights so she could live with the pain for a few days at least, Genma had wounded her a lot worse than this over the years. Once in the locker room, she grabbed her new outfit and started to dress.

First were the plain underwear and bra, these were always the same no matter what she wore. Then she pulled on a skintight black sleeveless shirt, followed by a pair of loose white pants tied at the ankles, and a pair of white slippers. She quickly changed her cloth bracers, black ones, and pulled on a deep red wrap around shirt made of a thick material that hung nearly to her ankles in the front and back, but split up both sides to expose her white pants. Finally she used a white belt to hold it all in place.

Shaking her hair out, she undid the pigtail and let it hang loose, running her fingers through it a few times. Smirking a little, she really wondered what her mother would think when she saw 'her' like this. She really had been forced to adapt to the curse after all. Though she would take a cure to the curse in an instant, no doubt about that at all. She just had to find one.

She didn't bother to head out the front, they'd just blame her for the damage and she couldn't afford to fix it. So she snuck out a nearby window, jumped to a roof, and was soon out of the area before anyone could say anything.

Several minutes later Ranma jumped off a roof, flipped over one of those signs that tended to cross some small streets, and landed on the ground. She looked around and checked the address of a nearby house. She was only a couple of blocks away. Her face was calm, but she could also feel a pair of eyes watching her move down the street.

Not from a house either, but from the nearby trees. Whoever it was could hide themselves with enough skill that she couldn't see them. Even better than that stupid ninja from earlier. There were several others watching her as she made her way down the street, but they weren't hostile as far as she could tell. They were focusing on her body, not her movements like the first one was doing.

A few minutes after that she stopped in front of a large gate with a wall going back nearly half a block. The wall was strong and designed with martial artists in mind, tough and thick enough to withstand several blows before it collapsed. Reminding herself that she had business here she turned and pounded on the door, making a resounding noise.

It opened to reveal the woman he'd seen during that fight with Pink and Link the other day. They gazed at each other for several seconds sizing each other up and Ranma was surprised to find that the woman wasn't as hostile as she believed. "I'm Ranma Mazaki."

The woman winced, but quickly recovered herself. "Nodoka Saotome, please come in."

Slowly stepping past her Ranma got her first look at the Saotome house in over ten years. She had memories of playing in the front yard here, but nothing that really mattered to her. "Thank you."

"Follow me inside, I've just finished dinner."

She nodded.

The house itself was two stories, in much need of repair, and looked like no one ever had the time to do the upkeep. There was even a large dent in one side of the house, it looked like an impact crater of some kind, though she really couldn't make any other details than that. Ranma decided that asking about it right now wouldn't work, so she just followed the woman into the house. After removing their shoes they entered the living room.

"Boy." Happosai said from his place at the table.

"Happosai." She said and glared at him.

"Did you manage to learn that move?"

Ranma shrugged. "It was easy enough after I realized you'd used it on me during our fight, several times."

He laughed. "Figured that out did you? Even Genma never caught onto the fact that I use that technique in such a unique way. The moron."

"If you would take a seat Ranma." Nodoka said hesitantly.

Ranma produced her gift from nowhere and handed it to Nodoka. "Here, I got this for you."

She took it, bowed, and exited the room quickly. Happosai just laughed at the weird look on Ranma's face.

"I don't understand." Ranma muttered.

"She's a proud woman, she didn't want to cry in front of you."

This Ranma understood. "What do you have planned?"

"We are going to eat dinner and get to know one another." The old man said as he flexed his hands. "Then we begin your evaluation."

"As if you didn't do it already, Master." Ranma snapped sarcastically.

The old man just smirked. "Can't deny an old man his fun."

"Yes I can and I'll beat you unconscious too."

"We shall see boy, we shall see just what you are truly capable of when push comes to shove. Genma was never the most astute student, but he had a knack for creating weird training exercises."

"More like insane ones." Ranma snapped, but Happosai just shrugged.

"Whatever works."

The door to the kitchen opened and Nodoka stepped out and began serving them dinner. Ranma simply watched her as she went through the motions. At the same time she glanced around the inside of the house. It was somewhat plain, the occasional picture on the white walls, a simple set of stairs leading to the second floor. Quite similar to what she's seen at the Tendo place really.

Ranma could also feel, several yards below, some kind of magical energy slowly thrumming. She ignored it for now, barely paying any attention to it at all, as the three of the ate in silence. They finished eating several tension filled minutes later.

"Thank you for dinner." Ranma said.

"Your welcome." Nodoka said. "Can I ask you some questions?"

"Go for it."

"Master Happosai says you have a Jusenkyo curse and that it's been locked in some way."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, ever since I fell in that spring. That was when I got fed up with the old man, got rid of him, and left him to his own devices."

"Why then and not at some other point?"

"It was the just the final straw. He trained me to be the best fighter of my generation, pushing me to do better than everyone I ever came across. He did this by insulting me, calling me a girl all the time, telling me how weak and pathetic they were. That they were useless and that I needed to be a man in everything. Then he took me to Jusenkyo, in our arrogance we ignored the warnings, and I had my worst nightmare happen."

"Genma has always thought with his stomach." Happosai said. "Can you explain how you got locked in this form?"

Ranma shrugged. "I came out of the spring like this, only I was glowing, and I booted the old man so hard that I lost sight of him in the distance. Didn't see him again for several months."

"So it wasn't a ladle full of water that someone splashed you with?"

She shook her head.

"I thought the Musk must have gotten to you, but the unlocking kettle isn't going to work if it wasn't their ladle that locked you."

"I would do anything to be unlocked. I hate this form no matter how much I've been forced to adjust to it." Ranma said. "I no longer have my extra reach or strength. All I gained from it was a little extra Ki and speed."

"Jusenkyo curses can be controlled with a lot of Ki and plenty of practice, though it's rare that anyone ever manages to accomplish that."

"I'm still working on building my Ki reserves, but they grow a little every day. The Amazons in China taught me several ways to build up my Ki and a few moves."

"I've met them, they can be quite the handful." Happosai said with a lecherous smirk.

Sighing, Ranma just glared at him. "Listen here Pervert..."

"I am, and I'm a martial arts grand master, so don't underestimate me just because of the way I live my life, student." The old man snapped. "Get to know your mother, and then we will have some fun in the back yard."

"Alright." Ranma said as the old man hopped out of the room. She turned back to Nodoka. "Now what?"

"I'm not sure where to start, Ranma." She said.

"Why did you want to kill me?"

"I never did."

"I saw the contract, with me like this I have to kill myself to keep my honor." Ranma snapped.

"I never agreed to Genma's ideas. He simply stole you from me when you were old enough to walk and abandoned me."

"He never mentioned you while on the road, he just trained me in some of the most powerful martial arts techniques in the world. Sometimes at the expense of my sanity."

"Ranma I've been looking for you, for over ten years, but I've never been able to find you. I'm always one step or more behind you."

"Why?"

"Gendo Saotome."

Ranma blinked. "Uncle Gendo?"

Nodoka winced before she nodded. "Yes, you see he's been using his position in the government to block my attempts to find you for over ten years."

"I don't understand."

"I've never been able to figure out why either, all I know is that he didn't want you to ever meet me and has tried to have me killed on a couple of occasions."

That confirmed most of what Ranma remembered from that website she'd looked at a few weeks before. Trust was something Ranma didn't have much of these days, she would usually give someone the benefit of doubt, but not much else. The Amazon's way of manipulating people into doing what they wanted had been a hard lesson for her to learn.

They didn't take no for an answer unless it benefited them in some way. Cologne had spent several weeks educating her and correcting a good amount of the misinformation Genma had given her over the years. Being around Ami and the other girls at school had helped to further what she already knew. Ranma knew how to learn from mistakes instead of needing Genma or someone else to make the decision for her.

"I don't know about this."

"Can't we at least get to know each other?"

"I guess for now." Ranma said and saw the woman's face light up.

"Maybe I can help you unlock the curse. I've got a colleague of mine, a Dr. Jones, looking for any information he can find on Jusenkyo without having to actually go there."

"Do you think he can help?"

"Yes, he's one of the most respected explorers in the last fifty years and has encountered almost everything from simple ruins to an actual God. Just don't ever ask him about Her, he won't ever shut up about it if you get him talking." Nodoka said and shuddered.

Ranma noticed that the woman, his mother, actually sounded normal for the first time since he met her. Her guard wasn't up and she wasn't thinking ahead in the conversation. "I'll be sure not to mention a thing."

"Thank you. He said he would need a week to find any information about it in The Library."

"No problem, I can wait. I've lived with the curse for some time now so I can wait even longer."

Nodoka started to look sad again as she gazed at her 'son'. "Did it hurt when you changed?"

"No, I didn't even notice at first, only when the guide at the place started to explain what had happened and I lost it."

"I see."

"What do you do for a living?"

"Like Dr. Jones I explore places, old ruins, temples, lost cities, and other places like that for the Explorers Society."

"I've never heard of them even with all my traveling."

"They are a group of professional explorers, treasure hunters, and super powered beings that banded together. Treasure hunters from all over the world work for and fund the various excavations of sites. A treasure hunter who finds a spot that hasn't been looted by robbers gets to keep a large amount of their finds. Then the Explorers Society will buy most of that as well. The biggest area for these are in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States where they host the annual conventions every decade or so. Huge sums of money can change hands in just a matter of days."

"Did you find anything?"

Nodoka sighed. "I'm not allowed to, but I have worked for them from time to time. Normally I work for the museum, but I've found some places that could have made me quite rich, instead the museum got it all and gave me a small bonus."

"That's unfair!" Ranma yelled, then blushed and looked away.

"I know, but the only reason I still have the job is that I bring in more than Gendo is willing to pay them. If he had his way I'd be homeless at the very least."

"And you are able to get by like that?"

Nodoka nodded. "Barely. I've got some other investments I've made through some friends that allow me a little freedom, but I have to be careful how I spend it."

"What about being a demon hunter?"

Nodoka blushed this time. "My family is a Demon Hunter clan, but I've never had a chance to finish my training. So I'm forced to cheat a little if I ever come up against a demon."

"The sword?"

"Yes, it's magical, giving me master level sword skill when I come up against a demon. Other wise I'm just a skilled swordswoman." She fibbed a bit.

Nodding, glanced around a little. "I can feel something in this house."

The older red headed woman froze as she was about to sip her tea. "Oh?"

"Yes, below us."

"My...workshop is down there. And my collection."

"Collection?"

"Things I've found over the years on my missions that no one knows about, weapons and other odds and ends."

"Like what?"

"Well my most prized possession is a magical Ring, made from a gold and polished to mirror finish. It seems to boost a person's skills quite a bit, making them feel strong and powerful."

"That...doesn't sound like a good thing." Ranma said.

"It's a cursed ring, so I should hope not, the thing is addictive according to what I've found. Once you wear the thing it adapts to you and will do anything to make sure no one ever takes it from you, even killing your friends."

"So why do you have it?"

"I have it placed in a protective box that seals away its power."

"Oh good, you had me worried there for a minute."

"I know what I'm doing. I've also got several other things that I've brought home from my trips. I'll show you some time."

"That would be great!" Ranma said and looked excited.

Happosai stepped inside. "Come on boy, I don't have all day."

Standing up Ranma gave him a look, nodded, and adjusted her outfit to make sure it was in place and headed for the back yard. Ranma could tell that a fight had taken place there just recently from all the damage. She could even see more of the crater in the side of the house. Two bodies had impacted there at some point quite recently.

Happosai walked out to the middle of the yard, he was still smoking his ever present pope and looked like he was bored. Trying to look like a harmless old man, Happosai turned to look at Ranma as she walked across the yard. "Do you recall the terms?"

"Yes."

"Good, cause I forgot what I told you."

Ranma crashed to the ground and formed a giant sweat drop on the side of her head. "What?!"

The old man snickered at her. "You're pretty easy to tease boy."

"Why you!"

"Perform the Devil's Fist."

"On what?" Ranma asked.

"Hmmm, that's a good question actually."

"I'm sure as hell not stealing your underwear!" Ranma said and shuddered.

Happosai nodded. "Of course not."

Ranma sighed in relief.

"I much prefer going Commando, if you know what I mean." He said with a twisted little laugh. "Ah, the freedom."

Ranma shuddered. She was not going to think about that idea anymore, then she dragged it deep into her mind, and shot it a few times. Then had to resist the urge to throw up.

"I will volunteer Ranma." Nodoka said as she walked up to them.

"Do you know what he wants me to do?"

"Steal underwear."

"And you still want me to do it?"

"He's already stolen three pair from me, what's one more going to matter?" Nodoka said with a little grin.

If Ranma hadn't known better she would have though the woman actually liked having her underwear stolen. She shrugged and nodded slowly. Happosai didn't even seen her move, one second she was looking at the older woman, the next he saw her breasts sag down just a little and Ranma handed him the bra. "Here you go old fart."

"Excellent! Now for the lower bit."

Ranma rolled her eyes and she tossed Nodoka's Panties on top of Happosai's head. There you go."

Laughing, Happosai started to caress the underwear.

"Gross!" Ranma muttered.

"It's manly."

The red headed girl turned to give Nodoka a shocked look. "He's playing with girls panties!"

"I know, he appreciates women so much. He loves ever aspect of a woman, even her clothing."

"The old perv is pulling Ki from them." Ranma snapped.

Freezing, Happosai slowly turned to give Ranma a surprised look. "How..."

"Its obvious, I can see the Ki in the clothing as it's drawn into your body and it's giving you a little thrill as her Ki touches your male Ki."

Happosai was starting to look excited. "You can see Ki?!"

"Sure, what's the big deal, I've always been able to see it. Ever since I fell in that stupid spring."

"Why Ranma, that's a special ability!" Nodoka said, sounding proud of her child and smiled at her.

"Huh?"

"Ranma there are probably 10 people in the world that can see Ki as it radiates off of clothing, let alone if it's being removed or not." Happosai said as he tossed the bra and panty back to Nodoka, who caught them and made them vanish inside her Kimono.

Ranma shrugged. "I've been able to do a number of odd things since I fell in that spring."

"Can you do anything else?"

"Well I can see in the dark, almost as if the sun was still on the horizon."

"Amazing, I bet that comes in handy."

"Feh, sure, but it makes going to sleep hard sometimes. I can never tell how late it is."

"We can work with that later, but now I want you to form a ball of Ki."

Ranma took a stance, brought her hands around in front of her and formed a marble sized point of sunlight, shining brightly.

"Pure Ki?"

"Yeah, it's easier to hold for long periods of time instead of using emotional Ki."

Taking a pull on his pipe, Happosai walked around Ranma and examined her with his own senses. He could tell that she was almost boiling over with energy, even after what he did to her the day before. She had tons of energy to draw on and he wasn't sure where it was all coming from.

He could easily see she had some very powerful magical weaves woven directly into her aura as well. The most obvious one was the curse, but that was balanced out by two others that he didn't recognize. The second one seemed to be quite old, almost eight years or more, and the third was impossible to comprehend. Just that it was magical.

Nodoka noticed something herself, Ranma was at the perfect stage of a girl's life to take on the powers of a Devil Hunter. She had to be a virgin on her sixteenth birthday and have killed a demon lord. There was a possibility that Ranma could use the official sword of the clan. She didn't say anything though, Ranma had her own test to complete.

"Alright Ranma, I can see keeping that up for an hour is going to be easy, so let's start on the next step a little early, just keep that ball formed."

"Next step?"

"Control and practice."

"What did yo..." Ranma started to ask, but Happosai jumped forward to poke at her with his pipe. For an instant she had a flash back of Cologne doing something similar and twisted.

Happosai's pipe handle missed her chest by less then a knuckle width, but she was still able to see the Ki as it formed around his hand. Then his whole body flared up and he attacked.

Dodging, while holding a ball of pure Ki between your hands is nearly impossible because of the shot of adrenalin that speeds through the body. This makes keeping emotions under control very hard, nearly impossible. After surviving Genma, Ranma could pull off the impossible with ease.

"Hey, hold it!"

"Learn quick boy!"

"Aghaa!!" Ranma yelled.

"Ouch!"

"BWHAHAHAHAHAH!" Happosai cackled as he removed her bra and tossed it to the side, then his attacks with the pipe increased speeds. "Time fort the next level Ranma-CHAN!"

Ranma paled, this wasn't good at all.

---------------

That night Rei was performing one of her usual fire readings while her Grandfather stood over her like an over protective hawk looking for anything that might move. He was around her constantly now as she went about her duties as a Miko for the shrine.

He hadn't been like this since she was just a little girl beating up boys that were mean to her. That one boy still deserved the broken nose as far as she was concerned, who cares if it was on picture day? That was a damned good day and one of her better memories.

Back then he'd done something similar. This time he was doing it because he thought she was going to run out and die in a fight against Youma. He knew about her place as a Sailor Scout, as Sailor Mars. The old goat had actually followed them to the airport and watched the whole fight and blown things completely out of proportion.

He even kicked her new friend out of the shrine and told her never to come back. Rei focused on the fire, it could sense her growing frustration and flared up to match it, nearly rising to the ceiling. She didn't see the old man smirk a little as he saw this, she could just feel his presence and it annoyed her.

Slipping deeper into her meditation she focused more and more of her Ki through the sacred fire and watched as a series of events suddenly caught her attention. There within the fire was a boy who looked quite a bit like Ranma, but he had black hair, and more muscles than she could count. She stared at him in awe as the figure appeared to be fighting an endless number of Youma. He was killing them with his bare hands and Ki blasts made up of pitch black energy.

What really caught her attention was the black crescent moon on his forehead, just like the one Ranma had, but colored black instead of silver. She could feel an evil force coming from him powered by the force of his aura. His hands flashed out and a dozen Youma were obliterated, and their blood ran down his arms and covered his clothing, but the hoard never stopped coming, so he fought on and on...

The scene changed, to show Ranma as she fought against a white haired man who was kicking the living hell out of her. Rei had seen Ranma fight enough times to know that she was better than the white haired guy, but for some reason she was losing, the crescent moon on her forehead was flickering in and out of sight as she watched. Rei could feel Ranma's terror through the fire as she fell to a powerful magic attack.

Four stones appeared, wrapped in fire and magic as they glowed brighter than the fire and slowly started to crack under the pressure. Rei jerked awake as the sacred fire flared to the ceiling again and she felt its heat trying to comfort her. Sweating she turned to see that her grandfather was kneeling beside her with a look of concentration on his face.

"Grandpa."

He opened his eyes and she could see that he was tired, very tired. "Sometimes when a vision comes it takes a lot out of us, sometimes to much. You needed help so I lent you some Ki to survive that vision."

"Did you see..."

"I did and I have a lot to think about." He said and silenced her with a wave of his hand. "I need to think. We will sit down and have a little talk here in a day or so."

Rei nodded as he stood up and staggered out of the room. He'd seen her vision and she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. She would really have to tell the others though, especially Ranma.

That boy, she knew Ranma was under a curse but she had never really thought about what she would look like as a boy. If that was him did it mean he was going to be a threat, was Ranma going to be a threat to them or the Youma? She didn't know what to think, she just needed to get some sleep and recover from the fire reading.

---------------

End Chapter 12

Notes: There you have it! They fought the Youma, Ranma trained Makoto, then met his mother and got into a fight with Happosai. Then Nephlite had painful flashback and you got to meet Princess Ranko in all her anti social glory.

Evil Grin.

On the other hand Rei's fire reading leaves several questions to be asked. The biggest one is why the Male Ranma is only being shown now and just what it could mean. I figured that it was about time that something was done to show that a male Ranma would be in this story and fire reading was the best way to do this. Grandpa Hino seeing and experiencing the same vision as Rei will help him see things a little differently as well.

Any comments on the chapter? Review and let me know!

---------------

Omake!

---------------

The old wooden stairs creaked as Ranma and Nodoka moved to the basement of the house, into Nodoka's collection. The area below the house was a lot bigger than Ranma thought it would be, but it was still full of old junk that covered every surface from one end of the room to the other.

She could see piles of old armor, swords and blades of all shapes and sizes covered an entire wall and were piled up on the floor below. Statues from across the world stared out at them as they moved into the middle of the room, but Nodoka ignored it all as she moved over to a secluded corner and waved Ranma over.

"Right here?"

"You wanted to show me a statue of a large fat budda?" Ranma asked, looking at the ugly thing.

Nodoka grinned and pointed at the jewel set into it's head. "Right here actuall?"

"A green rock?"

Nodoka planted her face into the floor and groaned. "No, press the stone."

Lookng skeptical, Ranma reached out and touched the stone, then gave it a press. It lit up for a second, then she heard a loud sound, like machinery starting up, and Nodoka grinning at her. "What?"

"Just wait."

She opened her mouth just as a small rail rose up from out of the floor behind her, locked in place, and that while section of the basement suddenly lowered started to lower into the floor. Ranma gasped as they moved down almost twenty feet before it lowered into a large cave. Florissant lights covered the ceiling and lit the while area.

Nodoka grinned as she dragged Ranma out into the cave and could only gape at the shere number of junk she had piled down here. If the room above was bad, this place was worse. The big difference was the massive computer set up at the far side of the cave. As they approached the screen lit up to show a very skinny girl, nearly as thin as Usagi, wearing a red Chinese dress with a yin yang symbol on her chest battling an ugly Youma with a sword.

"This Ranma is our Heritage!" Nodoka crowed. "Devil Hunting in all it's glory!"

Ranma glanced over at the dust covered heaps of something about ten feet away. "Really?"

"As a female of the clan, so long as you are a virgin on your sixteenth birthday, and after you defeat a Demon Lord, you will be granted powers able to kill Demons with ease."

Ranma blinked, processing that statement. "Huh?"

"You have it in your blood to gain the power to defeat demons." She said and clapped her hands in excitement. "You must begin your training."

"Why would I need these powers?"

Nodoka blinked. "So you can defeat demons!"

"Yet I need to defeat a demon lord before I gain them?"

"Yes."

"Then why do I need the powers? If I'm good enough to defeat a Demon Lord without the powers, why would I need the powers?"

"Uh..."

"Then why would a Demon Lord even let me get close to him if I already had the power to defeat one?" Ranma said. "If I was him, I'd just set up a set of circumstances that forced the Hunters to waste their time killing lesser Demons while I went about doing more important things."

"..."

Ranma nodded. "Not my cup of tea, as they say."

"But..."

She turned and headed back for the lift. "I'm thirsty, let's break for a while and go get something to drink."

Pouting, Nodoka followed after the younger red head. Visions of little devil hunters running around in tight fitting dresses playing devil hunter and demons in the front yard shattering into little pieces. "But, I had everything planned out..."

Ranma pretended not to hear her, being a magical girl was bad enough as it was.


	15. Chapter 13 Gendo's up to Something!

Notes: Got a bit of an offering here for everyone! Been rather blocked on this story for the last few months, but things started coming togethera couple weeks ago as I finally managed to get an idea to work. This is just a small offering of what I have planned for the next few chapters.

Please Review!

oooooooooo  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 13  
By Cory D. Rose  
© 2005  
oooooooooo

The small gray car came to a stop in front of the fence. Seconds later a large form stepped out and shut the door. Wearing a dark trenchcoat, Gendo Saotome glared around him as if he expected an attack at any time. His suit was wrinkled and a little dirty, but still managed to give him the dark look he was going for.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a crumpled up paper, unfolded it, and reread it a couple of times. He checked his watch to make sure he had the right time. Then he stuffed the paper back into his pocket and glanced around to make sure no one was watching him.

Once he was sure he was alone, Gendo went around behind the small car, opened the back hatch, and looked down at the large briefcase sitting there innocently. Inside was a hand held weapon that gave off a slight glow in the light of the setting sun.

It was shaped similar to a pistol, but that was where the resemblance ended. Two thirds of the weapon was an inbuilt computer, the rest was a series of simple parts. Gendo pulled it out, adjusted a dial and watched as several lights came on. Once the faint whine of the weapon stopped he loaded a magazine into the handle and armed the weapon.

Setting the safety lock, he placed the weapon in the holster just under his shoulder. Feeling a little safer, he made his way over to the fence and hopped over without any troubles. He was more alert as he landed on the other side and made his way through a small grove of trees several yards away.

His hand kept inching its way towards his weapon nervously. He wasn't sure why this particular place was chosen for a meeting, but he wanted to be prepared. This wasn't the first time someone with power had contacted him for unknown reasons, but he had a feeling about this one. He could smell profit in the air and since his idiot brother hadn't been cooperating lately, this was a good chance to recoup some of his loses.

A steely glint filled his eyes as he moved through the trees. He watched the shadows around him for any kind of movement. His hand glowed at one point as he performed a magical scan of the area, but he didn't detect anything. There was something dangerous in the area; he could feel it as he moved through the trees.

With the setting sun, the area was growing darker and darker by the minute. He figured by the time he arrived at his destination it would be completely dark. His coat swished a little as he passed the final tree and he could see an open area of grass extending several hundred feet.

It took him a second, but he quickly recognized the manicured lawn of the golf course. About fifty yards away he could make out a small table, umbrella, and a golf cart sitting innocently next to a little flag pole. His contact was sitting at the table drinking tea.

Gendo ran a hand through his hair and snarled a little as he made his way across the area.  
He was sure that something was watching him, he could feel it, and had a feeling that several snipers might have him in their sights by now. It took him several minutes to reach the table. The man looked up at him, his long brown hair falling around his shoulders. He was wearing a very expensive suit that looked out of place on the golf course.

"Gendo."

"Masato Sanjouin." Gendo said, attempting to be polite. "Why the hell did you call me out here?"

"I've been checking around and you seem to be the man I need for a little job."

Gendo snarled. "I don't think so. I don't like playing these kinds of games."

Masato narrowed his eyes. "I want your services."

"I have better things to do than play cloak and dagger games. I'm only here because you mentioned something about magic. Explain what you want of me."

Leaning back, Masato shrugged. "You have a reputation for harassing people Gendo Saotome and abusing your power. It has made you a number of enemies. I can help remove some of those enemies."

"Not interested."

Holding out his hand, palm up, and a book appeared in Masato's hand with a burst of energy. "Not even for this?"

Gendo eyed the book and a greedy look filled his eyes. "A book of magic?"

"I can sense your abilities Gendo; you are rather poorly trained, but you have some potential. This book can enhance those abilities nicely."

"I'm better than you think." Gendo snarled, his eyes lighting up with an inner fire.

Masato threw his head back and laughed. "You may be able to cast magic, but you aren't much of a threat to a trained mage."

"How dare you…"

"Because, I could blow you away with a wave of my hand." Masato voice was ice cold. He locked eyes with Gendo and stared the man down after several seconds.

"What do you want from me then?"

"I'm trying to find the identities of some people and my usual sources aren't working. You can find the information for me because of your position. If you succeed, I'll give you this book of magic."

"It's a simple as that?"

"Indeed."

"Who are the targets?"

"The Sailor Scouts."

Gendo gaped like a fish for several seconds before grinning widely. "Deal."

Masato handed him a card. "That is an unlisted number. Call me when you have the information and we can make the exchange." Then the table, umbrella, and cart suddenly flared with a bright white light and vanished. Gendo fell to the ground as his chair vanished and muttered a few cuss words, but he pocketed the card and headed back for his car.

oooooooooo

A dark green smoke filled the alley way behind the Sunrise and Beyond Love Hotel, seeping across the walls of the building, almost completely hidden in the darkness. It stole up to each of the windows where it would pause for a brief second before forcing a tendril of smoke into the room.

From there it would move from window to window in a slow and patient pace. Every now and then the smoke would pulse and grow just a little bigger as the night wore on.

Then, just as the sun was cresting the edge of the city it would slowly retreat back down the alley and down through the sewer grate. Filling the tunnel, the smoke flowed across the city until it entered a run down building at the edge of Nerima.

As the smoke burst form a crack in the floor it started to swirl, forming into a solid mass. Within seconds Jade stood there, her eyes glinting as they surveyed the room for intruders. She flipped her long blue hair over her shoulder and stretched her neck from side to side.

Then her form changed again, this time taking on a male form. His eyes were identical though and they turned to look at a nearby wall. They unfocused for a second and the man, Jedite, said a single word.

"Vespa."

Halfway across the city, the Youma looked up and shuddered as she felt her master calling for her. She dropped the body of the stray cat she held in her hand. It didn't make a sound as it hit the ground and stared at the sky with empty glassy eyes.

The Youma focused on her master and vanished from sight, only to reappear a few feet from Jedite. "Master."

"How goes the collection?"

"I have managed to gather more than expected master." Vespa said.

"Show me." He ordered.

Shuddering, the Youma held up her hands and a large ball of energy, nearly the size of a beach ball, formed. Holding up his own hand, Jedite used his power to pull the energy from the Youma. It stretched across the room and started to glow into his hand.  
Jedite's eyes went wide. "This is an enormous amount of energy Vespa."

"Yes master."

"Are there even any animals left in the city after this?"

"Many of them survived the draining process. I believe that they will be ready to be drained again within the next couple of weeks and I left a magic tag on them for when they are ready. Once that happens we can drain them from anywhere in the city. It could be an inexhaustible source of energy."

"True." Jedite said. "It is almost unworthy of us though. To take from a brainless thing when we can gain a thousand time more than this from a group of Humans."

The Youma decided that it didn't need to say anything.

"What of Nephlite?"

"His plan failed master and I haven't heard from him in several days."

"He survived?"

"Yes."

"Has he forgotten about you?"

"No Master." Vespa shook her head. She could feel Nephlite's bond as easily as she could sense Jedite.

Jedite could feel his form weakening. He could only hold his true form for a short while before he was forced to change back into Jade to rest. Vespa wasn't aware that of Jedite's current status, other than he was supposed to be imprisoned. He turned and stared at the Youma.

"Well done Vespa. Please continue what you were doing and expand out to other animals as you run out of stray cats and dogs. I will be developing a storage crystal similar to what Beryl uses so that we can store the energy a little better.

"Of course Master." Vespa said as she vanished in a burst of dark energy.

Jedite held his form another thirty seconds out of pure stubbornness. Slumping, his male body liquefied for a second and shrunk down a little and turned back into Jade. The girl made her way over to nearby corner and stood over a bucket, changed to water, and flowed into the pail.

As time went on this new form was experiencing a number of changes. The original owner of the body had been a very promising Youma female with the power to control water. She could even control how hot or cold it was, how much pressure was used, and wield it in combat.

Jedite didn't really exist anymore, Jade was a composite of Tidus and Jedite, with Jedite's personality mostly in control. Tidus, he knew, never had to change into a liquid form to sleep. Jade didn't understand why either, but she always woke up feeling a lot better after a few hours rest in the container. She could also tell that her powers were slowly changing.

Feeding from the energy produced by mating humans wasn't as effective as it was originally. Now she seemed to be pulling more and more energy from her environment. She would have to find out what was going on before things got too complicated. Jedite's personality agreed as well. They would have to spend a few weeks experimenting.  
She didn't want to make a mistake before her plans were ready to bare fruit.

At the same time she felt a strange stirring in her stomach as she rested. Whatever it was, she had a feeling that it might be something really good, or worse than the slavery under Beryl.

Only time would tell.

oooooooooo

"What do you think of that?" The blonde haired girl said quietly to her purse. It appeared to move and a white furred cat with a gold crescent moon on its forehead lifted its head out of the purse. It stared at the window for several seconds before turning to the girl.

"A fifteen thousand yen leather pushup bra?"

Minako grinned. "Yes. Isn't it beautiful, Artemis?"

"I remind you I'm a Male talking cat, not a fashion designer. It would also make you look like a hooker."

The girl's long blonde hair shifted around as she swept it back with her hand and grinned. "It would look great on me."

"Right." The cat drawled. "Like that trenchcoat looked good on you?"

"I was investigating a crime."

"You don't tip toe across a parking lot and expect people not to notice Minako."

Minako huffed. "It was a viable plan."

"You weren't investigating a crime Mina, you were chasing after that card throwing guy. Ace."

"He was so dreamy!"

"He married your partner!"

"It was so romantic." She sighed.

Artemis sighed. "Yeah right, that's why you spent most of the plane ride from Europe sniffling and sobbing every twenty or so minutes."

The girl thumped the cat over the head. "Quiet butterball or I'll sell you to a violin factory."

The cat grinned. "Hah, I'm too crafty for you."

The girl glared at the cat as it snickered at her.

"Ooooh!" She stomped her foot and headed down the street.

oooooooooo

Two police officers stood guard in front of small alley way. Gendo Saotome stood several yard inside the alley way looking around at a couple dozen cats. Every single one of them appeared to be extremely sick. They were laid out on the ground, on top of trash cans, in piles along the wall.

This was the twentieth time Gendo had seen a scene like this in the last month. He wasn't really part of the investigation, but he was able to step in and see the scenes every now and then. According to several of the agencies in the government, scenes like this were becoming too common.

He knelt down and pulled on a white glove. The cats were still alive, but they were skin and bones. He couldn't see any kind of muscle or fat on their bodies at all. Several of them were barely breathing. He grabbed a nearby calico and performed a magical scan on it.

As with the previous scenes, the animal was nearly devoid of life energy. The dull eyes of the cat stared out at him as it struggled to try and get away, but Gendo had other ideas. He glanced over his shoulder at the two police officers and cast a quick spell to keep them from noticing what he was doing

They seemed to relax a little and looked away a few seconds later. Gendo quickly traced a number of symbols in the dirt on the ground and infused them with energy. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a tuft of black hair, and grinned.

It was a lock of Ranma Saotome's hair from about five years ago. Back then he had been thinking of casting a spell to wipe out the boy's mind and turn him into a slave. Genma had been more than willing to send the lock of hair so long as Ranma eventually got around to creating an heir for the school.

Ranma's mother had killed that plan, although she wasn't aware of it. She had a nasty tendency to stick her nose into his plans at the worst possible times. Now that Genma was keeping her occupied, Gendo figured this would be the perfect time to set in motion another plan to obtain the boy.

He reached out, traced another symbol on the ground, and dropped the cat right in the center. It didn't hit the ground. Instead it started floating about an inch above the symbols. He watched as the energy swirled around the cat's body and a series of symbols started to appear above the cat.

"I see your soul is still in there." Gendo said and grinned wider. "This is too good to pass up."

Chanting under his breath, Gendo's gloved hand lit up with a bluish white fire that quickly surrounded the cat. It tried to yowl in pain, but the fire quickly consumed its body. The other cats couldn't do a thing to stop him as they were forced to watch as the cat's body started to warp and twist.

Gendo increased the power of his spell and within seconds the cat was sitting on the ground looking whole and healthy, except for its empty red eyes. Grunting, Gendo stood up and looked down at the cat. "You will obey me."

It nodded its head.

"You are to track down Ranma Saotome and tell me where he is."

It nodded again, lifted its head into the air, and sniffed the air several times. A pair of wings sprang out of its back with a horrible shower of blood and gore, but the wounds quickly sealed up. The cat ran down the alley way and launched into the air.

Gendo watched it for several seconds before turning back to the other end of the alley where the cops were completely ignoring him. He checked his watch again and pulled out his cell phone. He had another problem to solve now. Just who were the Sailor Scouts?

oooooooooo

Several miles away, at the edge of the Juuban district, Ranma dragged herself to her feet once again and turned to face Happosai. She was completely exhausted, her clothing shredded, and covered in bruises from head to toe. Even Ranma had to admit, grudgingly, that the old fart was a smidge better than she thought he was.

She tried to focus on him as he cackled several yards away. Off to the side Nodoka looked a bit worried, but wasn't doing anything. According to the sun, the two of them had been fighting for nearly ten hours now, clear through the night. The sun would be up in a few hours as well.

"Is that all you got old man?" Ranma growled, a bit of blood running down the side of her face.

"You seem a bit winded there Ranma. Any particular reason why?" Happosai asked, smirking.

"I'll never stay down." She snapped, forcing herself to move on sheer willpower alone.

Happosai just bounced around the yard and landed on the ground a few yards away, sitting, and smoking his ever present pipe. His eyes were narrowed as he watched Ranma move and knew that he'd pushed the red headed girl to the limits of her ability. It was also painfully obvious that even though Ranma was familiar with several powerful Ki attacks, she didn't know how to manage her power correctly.

"Oh really. It looks like you're about to fall over from here. Sure you don't want to give up?"

Ranma just snarled, holding up her hand and forming a large ball of bluish white Ki. Then threw it at him with a flick of her wrist. It streamed out, leaving a long line of energy clear back to her hand. Of course Happosai just snorted as he bounced to his feet, flicked something from his pipe and blocked the Ki.

"So you're down to using emotional Ki attacks now? Not very smart of you."

Ranma groaned as she suddenly collapsed to the ground unconscious. It only took a second for Nodoka to run over and kneel down beside her, checking to see if she was alive. "I can't believe you pushed her that far."

"He did quite well and never gave up. He pushed himself to his limits and simply passed out on his feet."

"These pronouns are going to be headache to keep track of." Nodoka muttered as she picked up Ranma.

"Don't worry about it. Ranma passed my test and should has learned several new moves if he was paying attention to the fight. I know he was." The old man said as he pulled a pretty blue panty out of his Gi and started to play with it.

Nodoka rolled her eyes and wondered where they came from. She didn't own blue panties. "I'm going to put Ranma in the guest room. Should I call a doctor?"

"Naw, Ranma just needs sleep. I didn't cause any major damage. Just some bruising and ruined her clothing."

"Alright."

Ranma's head was throbbing as she opened her eyes, the memories of her loss coming back to her. Even after falling over she hadn't passed out until Nodoka brought her into the house. She just hadn't been able to move. That Ki attack had been the last of her energy, anything more and she would have used her own life force and died.

Turning her head, she glanced around the room. Like the rest of the house, it was quite plain, nothing to really show that someone even lived there. She was in the only bed, a western style one, there was a night stand, a lamp and a closet off to the side. Nothing else.

That wasn't quite true, sitting by the door was a small pile of clothing and some bath supplies. She closed her eyes again and went into her center to examine her Ki. Even after a few hours of sleep it was already more than halfway replenished, boiling away. She tightened her control on the energy as she let it flow throughout her body.

Sighing in relief as her pain started to recede, even her headache. She slowly sat up. She sat on the edge of the bed looking down at her naked body. Every square inch of her skin seemed to have a bruise plastered across it. She wondered how bad her face looked for a second, and then shrugged it off.

Standing up was a pain filled chore that took even more Ki to sooth. Gritting her teeth, she moved over to the clothes and saw just what she needed. Some skin oils that would help her muscles recover faster once she got in a furo. Just as she was about to pick everything up, someone knocked on the door.

"Ranma?" Nodoka asked.

"I'm awake."

"Can I come in?"

"Sure." Ranma wasn't really that modest, so she didn't even think about the fact that she was completely naked. The bruises were more important as far as she was concerned.

The door opened and Nodoka stepped in. She was in a shirt and shorts, much more casual than what she was wearing a few hours before. She glanced at Ranma and gasped. "Oh my god! How can you even move around with that much damage and pain!"

Smirking a little, Ranma shrugged. "I've taken beatings like this three or four times a year under Genma's training. I've gotten used to it."

Nodoka looked like she was about to start crying.

"It's alright." Ranma said, patting her on the shoulder.

"It's not alright Ranma. Happosai pushed you to see your limits and I can understand that. Your father should never had to beat you like this."

"Don't ever call that man my father." Ranma snapped and looked away.

"A-alright." Nodoka said quietly. She quickly picked up the clothing and other items. "There's a robe in the closet over there. Put that on and we'll go down to the furo. Happosai also wants to talk to you now that you're up."

As she slipped the white robe on, Ranma had to smirk a little at the 'Hilton' logo on the robe. Who would have though her mother would steal a robe from a hotel? They stepped out of the room and headed down stairs. They quickly entered the main room and Ranma spotted the old letch sitting on the table playing with a couple of scrolls.

"Old fart."

He looked up and grinned. "Good morning Ranma, I see you finally woke up. You've been sleeping for almost five hours. Nearly time for an early lunch."Ranma gave him a bow. "You wanted to talk to me?"

Nodoka decided to leave them alone for a minute and headed for the kitchen. It was about time to start making lunch anyway.

"You passed your evaluation, but I noticed several things I didn't like one bit."

"Like what?"

"You have amazing Ki abilities for your age, but almost no control over them."

"I have perfect control!" Ranma bristled.

"No, you do not." Happosai said. "You treat your Ki like a thug would a hand gun. You load it, aim, and fire it with no conscious control over your attack after it leaves your hands."

"But…"

"I know you had some Amazon training, but its faulty with their style as well. They won't admit it of course, but they like the big bang Ki attacks that create shock and awe among the people."

"I don't understand." Ranma said. "I spend an hour or more per day working on my Ki control. I have this meditation technique I do where I force three balls of Ki into three different shapes all at once." Ranma explained. "My control has been getting better and better."

Happosai snorted. "That's good for a beginner, but you're better than that. You're treating Ki as if it was a game to be mastered boy. You couldn't be farther from the truth."

"Then explain it." Ranma snapped, almost stomping her foot.

The old man leered at her. "I don't mind being flashed a bit of your natural red hair boy, but I hope you mean it."

Gasping, Ranma blushed as she retied the robe.

This just made the old man laugh harder. "Now, you've been using pure Ki for most of your attacks lately. That's a very smart thing to do. You need to stay away from emotional Ki, it can seriously mess you up. Now, you need to do two things for the next stage of your training. The first is mastering a couple of Ki moves that I created."

The old man tossed the scrolls to her and Ranma quickly opened them. Ranma glanced at the name of the first move and sweat dropped. "Pull of the giant phallus!"

"Such a lovely name." The old man said, smiling lecherously.

Shuddering, Ranma read through the scroll and realized that move had nothing to do with sex at all. Instead it was meant to force a martial arts student's Ki reserves to swell in size over several weeks time. It would also increase one's strength and health.

"This is a very interesting technique old man." Ranma said as she sat the scroll down.

"You'll need to master it as quickly as you can. It is the foundation that you will build the rest of your training on. This is just the beginning of your training. I won't even teach you fighting moves till I think you can handle them. I barely even used my skills against you boy and you ended up a walking bruise. Get stronger, or else."

Ranma bowed her head to him. "Yes Master."

This made Happosai smile. "Good boy. I taught several of these moves to your father and Soun a long time ago, but they never made it past a certain point. Few ever do, but you have the potential they didn't have."

Reaching out, Ranma picked up the second scroll. This one was also a pure Ki technique, but dealt with several pressure points around the body. "What's this?"

"That pesky Ki of yours that keeps trying to burst out of your control. Both moves are needed to help bring it under control, as we deepen your reserves and increase the control the wild Ki raging through your body will be tamed. When that happens your power will increase several times over. Hell, you might even rival me, but I doubt it."

Ranma ignored the old man's final comment and read the scroll and noted this move was also designed to tame his Ki, but by forcing it into different parts of his body. "This could possibly kill me old man."

"So what?"

She glanced at him.

"Some chances have to be made to master the Art." Happosai told her. "Besides, you're strong though to survive this. Otherwise I wouldn't have given you the scroll."

Ranma shrugged. "I never said I wouldn't do it, just that it was very dangerous."

"By itself yeah, but combined with the other technique they balance each other out nicely."

Blinking, Ranma compared them and realized that he was right. "Whoa."

Happosai just cackled. "You are also lucky I'm not going to make you start going on my raids on with me. Your strength is enough that you won't need to meet the pretty ladies."

"Huh?"

"Happosai is a panty thief, he runs around the district stealing panties and getting large groups of beautiful women to chase after him. He seems to live for the chase." Nodoka said as she entered the room and sat a large plate of sandwiches down on the table.

"You've got to be kidding me?" Ranma snapped.

The old man smirked again and twirled his pipe. "I do it for several reasons, it's fun, exciting, and it makes the girls Ki levels rise through the roof and allows me to sample Ki from them even as we play."

"You're a vampire!" Ranma snapped.

Suddenly Happosai was right in front of her, a pair of panties in her face, as he tapped her forehead with his finger. Ranma gasped as she felt a surge of Ki enter her body and spread clear down to her toes. Then she broke out in a sweat as she realized that the Ki was affecting her body in a way she wasn't sure she liked. "What?"

"Just a sample of what I take in, boy. Pure Ki, a very arousing experience." Happosai said as he sampled one of the sandwiches. "Don't mock it till you know why I use it."

Ranma, blushing a little, just nodded as she got back up and quickly headed for the bathroom. She also tossed both scrolls in her subspace pocket with the other one. She ignored Happosai laughing at her as she raced for the bathroom, to embarrassed to look him in the eye.

"That wasn't a very nice thing to do Happi." Nodoka said.

The old man laughed again. "Well she certainly seemed to like it."

"You cut that out." She insisted, then giggled as Happosai held up the underwear Ranma had been carrying with her to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Ranma tossed the clothing on the sink. She noticed that was a pair of slacks, a blouse, and a pair of sandals. Shaking her head, she decided that there was no way she would wear the outfit. The underwear was missing too. Shrugging, she grabbed the oils and stepped into the wash area.

She spent several minutes washing her body, being careful not to aggravate her bruises. After rinsing the soap off she opened the oil bottles and started to working the stuff into her feet and calves, slowly working her way up her body. She could feel the burn as the oil worked on her muscles.

It only took her several minutes to cover her whole body, even her back. Then she moved over to the furo to soak for several minutes. The oils were designed to work with the hot water, increasing its effectiveness. It hurt like hell, but Ranma ignored it as she leaned against the wall of the tub.

She nearly dozed off as she sat there, but then she heard her communicator beeping. Frowning a little, she flicked her hand, and the little device appeared in her hand. "Yeah?"

"Ranma."

"Hey Ito, what's up?"

"I've been working on the housing situation and stumbled across something you might like."

"Shoot." Ranma said.

"Well we've been staying at that one place for a few days now. I just found the owner and he seems willing to let us rent the place."

"Interesting, is it a good deal?"

Ito nodded. "You have access to that money Pluto gave you and with a bit of tweaking on my part, I've had quite a bit of money deposited into the account."

Ranma blinked and started to pay a bit more attention. "Where's this money coming from."

"Places." Ito said, looking away.

"Ito." Ranma growled.

The cat gulped and looked nervous. "Well, you see, I might have…sorta, invested a tiny amount of it here and there."

"I don't recall asking you to do that."

"I'm your adviser and you needed the money." Ito said.

"How much are we looking at here?"

"Um…" Ito mumbled something and coughed.

"Ito." Ranma's voice went flat.

The cat coughed. "Um, through a grand stroke of luck, I've managed to gain you a major deal. I don't know the exact amount, but as of yesterday you were worth two billion yen."

Ranma twitched.

"Ah, two billion seven hundred million forty five thousand yen. Cough, to be exact."

Twitch.

"Ranma? Ranma? Ranma, are you awake?" The cat asked over the communicator.

"I see." Ranma said, perfectly calm.

"I knew you would be happy."

Ranma nodded, her eyes blank.

"Ranma? Heeelllooo!"

"And did you happen to use any of your magic to accomplish this?"

"Of course! It makes things so much more simple really."

Ranma sighed. "If we have that much money, buy the house and grounds from the guy."

"Ah…" Ito started.

"Well the guy was a bit startled by your name Ranma. He wants to meet you before he will even decide anything."

"Oh really?"

"Amazingly enough, both of you seem to have similar last names." Ito explained.

"Saotome?"

"Misaki actually."

"Ito, you do recall where I got my current last name."

The cat nodded. "The owner just wants to find out if you're a long lost relative."

"Just tell him no."

"Well, you see his family is convinced you just might be. Especially after I described you to them."

"Now it's the whole family?"

"Eh heh." The cat said and sweatdropped.

Ranma sighed. "Alright, I can meet with them I suppose. Where and when?"

"Um, today would be best actually. The house belonged to this old priest's daughter a few decades ago. When she married, her husband became the owner of the house and land. They had a lot of good times there and would like to see the house stay in the family if possible."

"Ito, I'm not in the best of shape for meetings today." Ranma admitted, though barely.

"I can see all those bruises Ranma, but that's never slowed you down before." The cat pointed out.

"Oh haha."

"See? The owner will meet you at the house we're staying at this afternoon if you want. Better get cleaned up and I'll meet you there in an hour or so."

Ranma sighed again. "Alright, then you can explain more about this sudden money wind fall."

"No problem!" The cat said as the communicator turned off.

Flicking her wrist, Ranma put the communicator back in the subspace pocket and slowly stood up, stepping out of the furo. She could already feel a major difference in her movements. Even the bruises were starting to visibly fade away. In a few hours they just might be completely healed if she got lucky.

Grabbing her towel, Ranma quickly dried herself off and let her hair fall around her shoulders. She didn't feel like retying the pigtail right then. She pulled her regular clothes out of the subspace pocket, ignoring the others, and quickly dressed. It was one of the lessons that Cologne taught her when they were training backing China.

She stretched for a few minutes right there in the bathroom to work out a few more sore muscles and to get the stupid bra to settle a bit more. Then she moved out of the bathroom and back to the front room.

"Ranma!" Nodoka said as she came out of nowhere and hugged her.

This made Ranma freeze for a second, but then her mother released her and stepped away. "Hey, mom." Ranma said, still a little unsure about calling her that.

Nodoka beamed at her. "Where did you find those clothes?"

"I always carry a spare set with me incase I something like yesterday happens." She explained.

"Ah, I'll put my clothes back then."

Ranma nodded. "I'd better go…"

"So…soon?" Nodoka asked.

"Um, I might be buying a house today and I need to meet the owner of the place I've been staying at."

"You can afford to buy your own house?"

Ranma nodded. "Seems a couple of deals turned out to be quite lucky. My adviser is taking care of the deal for the house, so I'm not to worried."

"You could always stay here." Nodoka offered.

"Maybe in the future." Ranma said a bit uncomfortably. She was used to being on her own and didn't want to give it up. "Besides, I'll be sharing the house with several other girls as well."

"Girls?"

Ranma missed the amused tone in Nodoka's voice. "Yep, a couple of friends I made in china, the two you met the other day at that house with the demon."

Nodoka nodded, hiding a little smile. "I see, well you are a growing girl. I won't stop you, but you are always welcome here."

"Thank you." Ranma said. "I'd better go. By the way, where's Happosai?"

"He went on raid over in Nerima. He says there's this school there that has all the girls still wearing the proper girls' uniform."

Laughing, Ranma nodded. "I'll stop by again in a day or two and we see how things go from there."

Nodoka nodded. She knew that something bad was going to happen now that Ranma was here, but she didn't want to really think about it just yet. Gendo was going to do something to hurt her over this. Just like the last time she came close to finding Ranma. "I'll be looking forward to your next visit Ranma. I'll contact Dr. Jones and see if he's found anything as well."

"Thanks." Ranma said as she headed for the door.

oooooooooo

Authors notes: This chapter is quite a bit smaller than a lot of the previous chapters. The smaller chapters worked out great for my other story, The Stone, so I've applied that to this story as well. I expect this next part of the story to be about six chapters or so. With any luck that should be quite a bit of work when combined.

I'm also going to change the setting of the fic a bit. Perfume and Shampoo will be leaving here pretty soon as they have had their time in the lime light. Nodoka is introduced, Happosai is causing readers to quite a bit of shock, and I still haven't gotten around to doing much with Makoto or Minako.

Gonna have to focus on them more.

I'm also going to be hitting on more with Male-Ranma in the next few chapters. I've got some ideas I'm playing around with at the moment.


	16. Chapter 14

Notes: Ragen Fragen Grumble Fricken…Ever since I started this project I've been using this Sailor Moon episode guide that gave names and pictures for the Youma used in the series. Now the blasted thing seems to have gone the way of the Do Do. I can't be as accurate as I used to be because I can't find an alternitave. Everything I find is for the live action show instead. I'm rather irritated at this because I can't be as accurate as I like to be.

(Gordon hasn't been able to run this through word for me because his computer crashed and he lost a couple of programs he normally uses. Im posting this unedited version for now and I'm aware that it might have some mistakes. I'll correct these when I get a chance, but for right now I thought posting the chapter would be a good idea. It's also the smallest chapter that I've written in some time.)

oooooooooo  
Princess of the Moon  
Chapter 14  
By Cory D. Rose  
© 2005  
oooooooooo

The early afternoon weather was turning bad as Ranma raced across the rooftops and sent several bits fleeing before her. Before the stupid curse removed her manhood, Ranma had really liked walking along in the rain. The feel of the water on 'his' skin as he moved, fought, or ran had always made him feel alive.

After the curse though, she tended to ignore the stuff and didn't take much pleasure in it anymore. So Ranma just glared at the sky as she ran, bouncing from one house to another with the ease of long practice. She really didn't want to get wet either, so she increased her speed.

As she sailed over an alley way though, she caught sight of something that caught her attention. She came to a stop on top of the nearest house, reversed direction, and landed on the wall next to the alley. Several large boys were crowding around someone, a girl in a dress.

"Now listen to me, slit, I don't care if you think my brother owes you one yen or a million. Ya ain't getting anything, understand." One of the thugs said to the girl. The others all looked mean and cracked their knuckles.

The girl stood stiffly and glared at the boy for insulting her. This made the boys all laugh and insult the girl even more. Ranma was sure if he didn't interfere this would turn into something bad. She would have to make sure the girl didn't end up being another victim.

Ranma couldn't tell who it was, but didn't really care either. She hopped into the alley way, picked up a small rock, and tossed it at the bully's head. The bully turned around along with all the other boys. Ranma glared at him and could tell just from the way he moved that the moron wouldn't be a challenge at all.

"Ranma!" The girl said and peaked around the large boy's back.

"Well hi there Nabiki-chan." Ranma said, smirking a little. "What's up?"

"These jerks owe me money and wont pay it."

"Really?"

"The slit isn't getting anything." The lead bully snarled, pulling a knife.

Ranma reached down to pick up a loose brick from the wall and held it up for all of them to see. She didn't say anything as they all looked confused, but then smirked as she casually crushed it with her bare hands while staring the big one right in the eyes. Brick dust fell the ground as Ranma dusted her hands off. "There we go. Now, who wants to fight little ol'me first?"

Tapping the bully on the back, Nabiki held out her hands. "Two hundred and fifty Thousand yen please. Or my friend will get rough."

The yen appeared in Nabiki's hand as the boy's seemed to teleport right out of the area, screaming. Ranma just laughed and watched them run for their lives. Of course Nabiki counted her money and quickly put it in her school bag. Then she moved over to Ranma, grabbed the red head's face, and proceeded to give her a passionate kiss.

"Umph!" Ranma said, frozen in shock.

Smirking, Nabiki broke the kiss nearly a minute later. "There, thanks for the help cutie."

Ranma's pig tail was sticking straight back away from her head, which made Nabiki just laugh. "Uh…what?"

"Thanks for the help, those guys were really going to hurt me. That was your reward for saving me, again. You're really making a habit out of that aren't you?"

Shaking her head, Ranma nodded a couple of times before she smirked a little. "I see. You know I may have to pay you back for that."

"Oh really?" Nabiki said, still smiling.

Ranma made as if to reach out and grab Nabiki, but she backed up. Then Ranma smirked at her. "There we go."

"You missed completely."

Ranma held up a small crumpled piece of cloth and let it unravel, into a pair of white panties. "I learned a new trick yesterday."

Paling, Nabiki checked her underwear. "No way!"

"Hmm, I knew you were small, but this is unexpected." Ranma said as she checked the little label on the panties.

"No &$#ing way!"

"Now what should I do with these? Keep them for a souvenir perhaps?"

Nabiki made a grab for her panties, but Ranma pulled her arm away and laughed. "Give those back!"

"But, they're so cute." Ranma said as he stretched out the little band.

"Ranma!" Nabiki growled.

Ranma laughed and tossed them back to Nabiki. "That was fun."

"Fun?"

"Yep, want to play again?"

This made Nabiki's hair stand on end as she jumped back and wrapped her arms around her chest. "No way!"

"So you are you on your way back to the dojo?" Ranma asked to distract the girl and change the subject.

Nabiki nodded, relaxing a little. "I was just collecting some money that people owed me. Where have you been anyway?"

"Around." Ranma said with a shrug. "I'm currently thinking of buying this house on the outskirts of Nerima and Juban."

"Those houses are expensive."

Ranma nodded. "A bit, but I can cover it easily."

Nabiki's heart sped up as she realized that her savior was a lot better off than she thought. She had butterflies in her stomach suddenly and had to resist the urge to giggle. Money always made her weak in the knees. "Have you picked out an actual house?"

"Yep, this small one story house with a large back yard with lots of trees, bushes, paths, and even a small river. There's this massive tree in the back yard that has to stand nearly three hundred feet high."

"The old Yashada place. It's been sealed tight for nearly forty years. It doesn't even have electricity or plumbing."

This just made Ranma shrug as they started walking out of the alley. "No problem, I can take care of things like that."

They headed deeper into Nerima, in the general direction of the dojo. "What else are you doing?"

"Training. I met this old martial arts grand master that agreed to teach me. I took my evaluation test yesterday. Blasted thing took almost ten straight hours."

"That's great." Nabiki didn't have a clue why a simple evaluation would take ten hours. She was just glad to be talking to Ranma again.

"Is my idiot parent still at your place?"

"Yeah, he eats enough food for five people too. Sis is starting to get tired of cooking these giant meals for him."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, pops as this bottomless stomach. I bet he steals food from your plates too."

"Yep, I've lost five pounds since he showed up." Nabiki grumbled.

Ranma laughed. "Well it made you look very good."

"You want me to kiss you again?"

Ranma just smirked. "Just a compliment. No need for threats."

"Oh really?" Nabiki said, smiling again.

"Yep." Ranma said, holding up Nabiki's bra. "Now this thing…"

The Middle Tendo daughter was gaping at him. "How did you do that?"

"It's easier when the subject isn't paying attention." Ranma admitted. "It's actually a weapon theft technique, but Master Happosai found that it a lot more fun to take clothing instead."

Nabiki grabbed her bra and stuffed it in her bag with her panties. Now she was really feeling exposed and it gave her a naughty thrill. Of course she knew Ranma was only teasing her or she would have to deck her one, but right now it was fun to play.

"Can we be friends Ranma?"

"I thought we were?" Ranma said, sounding confused.

Glomp! Nabiki hugged her suddenly, and then blushed and let go. "I don't really have friends Ranma."

"We all have friends."

"No, I have people I know and hang around with at certain times. Friendship has never come into it."

"Well you can come over to my house when I buy it officially and meet a couple of my other friends." Ranma said as they stopped at the corner just down the street from the dojo. "This is as far close as I want to get to the dojo or I'll end up getting in another fight."

Nabiki nodded. "I think my sister might like to meet you again as well"

"Which one? The one that tried to attack me?"

"Nope. My older sister, Kasumi. She always likes it when a guest drops by for a visit."

Ranma shook her head. "Maybe, but only when my parent isn't there. You and Kasumi can both come over to my house sometime though, it'll be fun."

"Alright, it's a plan."

"I'll see you around." Ranma said as she was just about to jump to the roof of a nearby house, but then something had to happen.

"You!" An angry female voice screamed.

Ranma spun around to see Nabiki's sister Akane racing towards them. She heard Nabiki groan in exasperation and mutter something. Akane growled as she reached them and threw a punch right at Ranma's face.

"I'll teach you to mess with my family!" She snarled.

Cocking her head to the side, Ranma easily avoided the punch. He did noticed a slight improvement in her form though and figured someone must have been training the girl. "What can I do for you, tomboy?"

This just made Akane lose it even more and she dropped her book bag and started throwing punches. Ranma ducked, dodged, and casually blocked everything the girl had to throw. "Man, you are slow."

"Stay away from my sister!"

"And you have a one track mind." Ranma commented and smirked.

A red aura formed around Akane. This impressed Ranma a little, that is until he realized that the girl couldn't control her own Ki. The amount of Ki was a surprised, but it was just burning off into the air and being wasted. Stepping out of the way of a super fast punch, Ranma noticed that Nabiki was trying to get Akane's attention.

"Akane, please, stop fighting. Ranma hasn't done anything to me. She saved my life."

Fueled by her blind rage, Akane didn't hear a word of it. Instead she started a punch and kick combination. To avoid it, Ranma just bounced off the girl's head with a laugh and landed several feet away. "Way to slow girl."

Akane growled.

"I see you're built like brick too."

Akane's snarled.

"Nope, you're a sexless tomboy!" Ranma yelled.

Akane screamed and threw out a blinding fast punch, right into a wall. It exploded around her fist, sending stone and masonry everywhere. Ranma casually batted bits of stone out of the air and tapped Akane on the back of the neck. She collapsed to the ground with a little whimper.

Ranma cocked her head from side to side. "Never was much of a challenge. Someone has been teaching her though."

"Ryoga." Nabiki said.

"Oh?"

Nabiki nodded. "Yeah, the Lost Boy has been teaching her his style."

"No wonder. Ryoga was always a power fighter and the style does fit your sister. The style takes a lot of endurance though, something she doesn't have yet."

The middle sister nodded, recalling how after each session with Ryoga ended up with Akane unconscious on the floor from exhaustion. "She's improving though."

They heard a sound and turned to see and old man looking out the hole in the wall from the other side. Nabiki sighed and nodded to the man. "Hello Mr. Ikasha."

"Nabiki." The old man said, glancing at Ranma. "Did you do this?"

Ranma shook her head. "No, Akane did."

"I thought as much. Her hand is broken after all."

This made both of them look down at Akane and noticed that her hand wasn't in the best of shape. Nabiki cursed, causing the old man to chuckle a little. "I'll pay for the damages Mr. Ikasha."

"Your word is always good Nabiki. Get to it when you can and make your sister come over her to rebuild the wall herself, that way she can appreciate other people's property more."

Nabiki nodded as the old man bowed and headed back into his house. Then Nabiki grabbed Akane's arm and dragged her into a fireman's carry. "I need to get her to Doc Tofu. Will you be alright Ranma?"

"No problem, you need me to help you?"

"Naw, if you're around, sis might lose it again. As you can see, she still hasn't gotten over what you did to her."

"Feh, she needs to learn how to lose."

"That's one lesson that Akane has never learned. Father coddled her during training and never even showed her the advanced moves of our school."

"Oh?"

Nabiki nodded. "I overheard dad and Mr. Saotome talking one night when they were drunk. They were sparing in the dojo, breaking everything in sight and dad mentioned it in passing. Said he wished Akane had been a boy so he could pass everything on to her, but they needed a male heir to do that."

This made Ranma snort. "Typical. Pops once told me that women make a martial artist weak and that they were useless. After I got my curse he said some things to me that…" Ranma shook her head.

"I think dad is going to offer the school to Ryoga since him and Akane get along so well."

"Best of luck there." Ranma said as she hopped onto the wall and looked down at Nabiki. "I'll contact you when I get settled and you can come over."

"I'd like that."

Smiling, Ranma raced down the wall, jumped to a nearby roof, and raced away. Nabiki watched the red headed girl vanish into the distance and sighed. She really wondered when life had become so complicated. It didn't help that her little sister seemed to be to stupid to understand that Ranma could break her like a twig.

The girl always got in over her head. Grumbling under her breath, Nabiki headed for Tofu's clinic and hoped Akane would wake up in a better mood. Standing just down the block, in the shadow of a tree, Ryoga was hoping the same thing. The more he saw Ranma in action, the more he realized that she was on a completely different level of skill.

He growled in frustration, but figured it would be a good idea to tell the old men that Nabiki seemed to be friends with Ranma. It might get him some special training if he worked it right. Grabbing his bag, he took a step and wondered how he had ended up on the beach and eyed the water warily.

oooooooooo

Every other day Makoto Kino would leave her apartment a little before noon and run five miles. She was smiling as she neared the end of her run as she thought of Ranma. It was rare for her to find a sensei like Ranma and she didn't want to lose the opportunity.

Already she was becoming proficient with reaching her center while moving and could hold it for several minutes. One of the areas she had noticed the largest change was on her morning runs. She used to struggled through them and end up nearly exhausted by the end.

Now she could run five miles quicker than normal and she wasn't half as tired when she finished. This allowed her to train her martial arts skills as well. When she was centered she could feel more power in her punches and kicks. Natsumi and Karumi had mentioned something similar to her, but never got around to showing her.

For the first time in years she was feeling like a real martial artists again and it made her feel good. All that work and training was finally starting to pay off. She ran around a corner and spotted a small foot cart.

"Hi." Makoto said as she stopped next to the small cart and glanced at the guy running the cart.

"Hey, What can I get for you?" The cute guy asked. His long black hair was tied back in a long pony tail.

Smiling, Makoto scanned the menu sitting on the counter. "I'll have a Bacon Okonomiyaki please."

"Coming right up, sugar."

Glancing around the cart, Makoto noticed that it was well used and in very good shape. "I've never seen you around her before."

"I'm just passing through." The guy said, his hands moving in a blur as he prepared her order. He finished it and sat it before Makoto seconds later, while it was still sizzling.

"I haven't had this in a long time."

"I make the best." He said, smiling easily.

"Mmmm." Makoto said. "So where are you headed, if you don't mind me asking. I'm Makoto Kino by the way."

"Ukyo Kuonji and I'm looking for someone actually."

"Oh? Who?"

"A jerk by the name of Ranma Saotome. He's in the area somewhere and I've got to find him and avenge my honor." Ukyo explained, absently bending one of her spatulas in half as she growled Ranma's name.

"I don't know any guys by that name." Makoto said.

"He and his father are good at hiding."

Makoto just nodded as she finished off her food. "Well I know a girl with the name Ranma though."

Ukyo's head snapped up. "A girl?"

"Yep, my newest sensei actually."

"You don't say? Any chance I could meet her? Maybe she could point me the male Ranma's direction."

"I guess, but I'm not sure she can help."

"It's a mater of honor, sugar." Ukyo insisted.

Makoto shrugged. "I'm meeting up with Ranma here in a couple of days at the park near my apartment."

"Sounds perfect, if it doesn't turn up anything I can always sell some food while I'm there. Martial arts lessons always build up an appetite."

Laughing, Makoto just nodded and gave the cute guy directions to the park. She also took a second to innocently leave her own phone number, her name, some stats, and a little smiley face. He looked so much like he old boyfriend.

Neither of them noticed a shadow glide down and land on top of a nearby wall. It folded its wings back and padded with feline grace down the wall. It watched both of them as they talked and sniffed the air.

Seconds later the tall girl ran off to finish her run and the flying cat launched into the air. The girl wasn't the target, but the target had been near her recently. It launched into the sky and followed the girl until she went home.

oooooooooo

The next day, the sun was just cresting the horizon as the rain started to fall across the city. Dark clouds hovered high in the sky as lightning jumped from cloud to cloud with a thunderous noise that echoed across the city. It sent blonde haired girls running for cover, screaming in fear.

This didn't bother Ranma to much as she sat at the edge of her hotel bed studying the two scrolls Happosai had given her. She was wearing a black muscle t-shirt that barely contained her breasts and a pair of plain white panties. She was awake this early in the morning for once reason only.

Her Ki was boiling again. Earlier as she slept it had tried to flare out of her control, but she had woken up and quickly regained control. Ranma was glad that something as dangerous and subtle as that could wake her up, or the whole room would have gone up in flames. She could still feel heat wafting off the bed though.

That was ten minutes ago.

She could have transformed into Starfire, where she suspected she might have perfect control, but she wanted to avoid that right now. There was no way she was going to be dependent on her magic to control her Ki. She would bring it under her control by force of will if she had to.

So she studied the two scrolls with a rare intensity. Ranma was still surprised that something so simple was supposed to bring her more control, but on the other hand, it made sense. The first technique would allow her to alter the energy around her while the second showed her how to take her Ki and tie it into a loop.

This would force her to use a small amount of Ki, constantly draining her Ki, but at a slow enough pace that it could be regained naturally. Or by drawing it out of the very air. Just like Happosai's panty theft technique. Ranma just shook her head at the simplicity of it. How a pervert could come up with something like this was unreal.

There were even several suggestions on what to use the Ki for. One for enhancing strength, or speed, or even the senses. Ranma wasn't a slouch and decided that she would do them all. Each one for a few days or weeks, depending on how well they worked. They wouldn't have been suggested if they didn't work after all and eventually she could do them all at once.

Rolling to her feet, Ranma tossed the scroll on the bed and let her battle aura flare out. A soft white glow filled the room, and then over the next half hour she slowly wove the Ki around her body in a web like pattern. By the time she was halfway through, her aura was humming with suppressed power.

Ranma ignored it as she finished setting the first technique and felt the shift in her Ki instantly. She grit her teeth as the floor groaned beneath her. Muscles straining, Ranma just grinned as her weight suddenly quintupled. She also felt her Ki relax as the drain started and the energy flow stabilized.

Releasing a large breath she took a few minutes to get used to the feeling of added weight. Her Ki was swirling through and around her body increasing her weight by five times. She could see her muscles straining against the weight just by lifting her arms.

"Wicked!" Grinning, she threw a few punches and kicks. Working out like this was going to do wonders.

Ranma relaxed and focused once more. She started on the second technique after glancing at the scroll one more time. This one required that she 'tie off' the weave created by the first technique, but it had be done in a certain way. This one took her about twenty minutes to pull off, but once it started Ranma was able to relax completely.

The second technique allowed her Ki to keep flowing even without her conscious thought. Her whole body was straining against the weight now, making her muscles really stand out. According to the scrolls this would only last as long as it took her to get used to added weight. The strain on her body was simply incredible.

She could then increase as time went on if she wanted to. Thus, allowing her to get stronger and stronger without over straining her body and joints. Well so long as she concentrated. She grinned a little and walked around the room a few times. Her Ki wasn't boiling anymore now that she was using it and Ranma thought that she could already tell that her reserves were getting bigger.

Though there was no way that could happen that quickly, it would take a few days for her to notice any differences at all. All that extra weight would also be hard on floors and rooftops though, so she would have to also concentrate on move lightly. This was the kind of training that would push her to whole new levels.

'This is going to be interesting.' She thought to herself. This, along with everything else she did on a daily basis would be one hell of a learning experience. Thinking light, she pulled her pack from subspace and sat it next to the bed.

After digging around for a few seconds she pulled out her regular pants, a black silk shirt, and more underwear. After a few more minutes of thought she also pulled out an item she didn't care for to much. A hair band. As much as she hated to wear girly things, a promise to Cologne made some time ago, forced her wear such things occasionally.

Even Usagi tried to get her to wear them at times. No one could refuse the cuteness of Usagi, ever. Usagi had bought her this particular hair band because Ranma was an admitted tomboy at heart. It was black with what Usagi called the cutest little skulls she had ever seen.

She sat it on the bed next to her shirt. Shucking her sweat soaked t-shirt and panties, she turned and strolled over to the bathroom to take a shower. Just before she reached the bathroom she heard the floor groan and realized she wasn't moving lightly.

Frowning a little Ranma realized that a skill that was once instinctive wasn't going to work as well as it used to. She would have to focus a little harder until it became habit with her new weight. This had an interesting effect on her body. Her breasts, already large, were so heavy that they nearly pulled her to the floor.

However, when she focused on being light they would spring back into position on her chest, wobbling around, lightly. She could tell that it was going to be a while before she achieved a proper balance with the techniques, but wasn't to worried. Ranma wasn't in much of a hurry, so she took a really hot shower, washed her hair, and scrubbed every inch of her body.

After getting out of the shower, the little room was full of steam, so she sat down on the floor and meditated for another hour. Slowly letting the air cool her down and dry her body. It gave her a good chance to put in some actual meditation practice.

Then she walked out, over to the bed, and quickly got dressed. The all black outfit was in different shades of black and the magical forearm bracers really stood out. Leaving her still damp hair loose, she used the hair band to pull it back into a simple ponytail just like Makoto used.

Ranma wasn't sure what to think of the style though. She liked the fact that the hair was out of her face, but at times it would whip around and bat her in the face. Once she was completely dressed, she quickly left through the window.

oooooooooo

Gendo Saotome scowled as he moved down the hallway. He was in an area that he didn't have clearance for, but that didn't matter. There was a job to do and it would reward him with even more power and all he needed to do was find the identities of some girls.

Easy as pie. He smirked a little as he spotted a guard standing next to a plain looking door. As with most things in Tokyo, things were never what they appeared to be. The guard was eying him dangerously. The rifle on his back could come around and shoot him faster than Gendo could say anything if he made a mistake.

"I've got permission to enter the archive."

The guard scowled at him.

Gendo slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small yellow slip of paper. The guard couldn't tell, but the paper glowed with magical power that non magical people couldn't see. So the guard couldn't react as the paper flared and sent a wave of yellow energy throughout the hall.

Freezing the guard in place, the rifle halfway off his shoulder. Gendo sighed as he eyed the guard and figured he had about ten minutes of nul-time before the spell ran it's course. It was a good thing he knew what he was looking for. He edged around the guard, opened the door, and came face to face with three more guards, all of them pointing guns at him.

Gendo nearly wet himself, but then he noticed that they weren't moving either. Smirking, he ducked around them and moved through the archive. The file he was looking fore was in the classified section. It was an area that wasn't seen by many people. Almost a hundred filing boxes full of information on the strange people that populated Tokyo.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little slip of paper with a code on it and started checking the boxes. It took him nearly four minutes to find the box he wanted. He was a little surprised to see that the seals for the box had been broken recently.

The date for the latest seal was only two months old. He didn't think about it as he pulled the box down and sat it on the table. He pulled out a small wand and tapped the box. The box glowed for a second and suddenly duplicated itself. He grinned and quickly put the original box away.

Shrinking the new box down so that it looked like a pack of cigarettes, he stuffed it in his inner pocket. His time was nearly up and he needed to be out of the area in three minutes or the guards would shoot him on sight. Racing through the room, he ducked around the frozen guards again.

He took a second to pull the wand again and point it at each of their heads. It sparked each time it touched their skin. Once the door was closed and he finished altering the guards memories, he made a quick walk down the hallway. He smirked a little as he realized that he had nearly a minute left of null-time.

This gave him time to head for his office. When the spell ended he was calmly walking down the hall towards his office. Several people spotted him and waved as he unlocked the door to his office.

It was the perfect alibi.

oooooooooo

Authors notes: I'm giving some thought to stopping this story onceI finish this latest part. I do have several reasons for this, but so far I haven't made any decisions. It's just something i'm considering because as time goes on I find it harder and harder to work on this fic. It's already over 200,000 words and barely at what would be the halfway point. Story wise, Princess is my most inconsistant story, plot wise, and could use an overhaul at some point.

Opinions and thoughts are welcome if you want to send me anything.

CRose


	17. Chapter 15

oooooooooo   
Princess of the Moon   
Chapter 15   
By Cory D. Rose   
© 2007   
oooooooooo

In the last twenty-four hours Gendo had learned a great deal of information. Stealing that box from the archive had been just the tip of the iceberg. He hadn't slept at all since opening the box. His table was covered in dozens of folders, each one labeled with a name and a picture of a young girl. He couldn't help but wonder why no one had ever done anything with this information though. It was as if everyone that knew about the box had forgotten about it.

He'd been in government long enough to know that an opportunity like this came along only once in a lifetime and even then one had to be extremely lucky. He also knew that he could sense someone working to keep the information from falling into the wrong hands. Running a hand through his hair, he adjusted his little glasses, and grabbed the folder that surprised him far more than the others. It was labeled 'Saotome (Masaki), Ranma.

That was one name he hadn't expected to find in the box. That his personal project was apart of the group of girls that his new employer wanted might cause problems down the line. He'd already decided that he would withhold Ranma's name from Masato Sanjouin. Another surprise was that the file wasn't as big as the others, as if the information was hard to find.

Or someone had removed it before he got there. He recalled that the box's seal had been broken before he arrived. As if, someone had been careless or gotten to the box before him. Once again he opened the file and read through the six sheets of information and half a dozen pictures. Whoever had collected the information had managed to dig up a few things that were supposed to be buried. Like the fact that Genma had sold Ranma into slavery a couple of times over the years in an attempt to break the boy.

Instead, it only made the boy stronger and angrier than ever. Those slavers had been removed from existence on Gendo's orders within days of Ranma's escape. Neither Genma nor Ranma were aware of just how many plans hinged on Ranma's training. Shaking his head, Gendo read about the curse and the theories that the writer had come up with to try and explain the thing.

Chinese magic curse was actually listed, forth line down from the top, and mentioned that if the Sailor Scouts Magic was real then the curse just might be as well. It almost made the man laugh at how close the suggestion was. Hardly anyone believed in magic anymore except those that witnessed it first hand. With a sigh he sat the file to the side. Picking up a picture of Sailor Starfire, Ranma, and a picture from his own collection of the male Ranma, he had to admit that all three could have been related.

Making the connection on the Scouts identities had been quite easy as well. Ranma stood out quite a bit with that red hair, but the blonde haired girl, Usagi, stood out even more and didn't have any idea what she was doing. She had transformed in full view of several homeless people who were actually undercover operatives on the lookout for crime.

Seeing a girl standing in an alley twirling naked in the middle of a light show did draw a bit of attention. This was how they identified Ami Mizuno and Rei Hino as well. Though the two of them were a little more careful when they transformed. It was still a very noticeable light show.

According to the Threat Assessment, the girls were fighting some kind of alien invading army of some kind that used terrorist tactics. One fighter that could take on multiple defenseless targets. The girls, if trained right, could be used for a great many things besides these alien things. Ranma was even their leader and had a devastating attack power.

He quickly flipped through the rest of the folders before setting the pictures out on the table. Four pictures of the Scouts with a picture of them in regular clothes right below it. Strangely enough the faces of the Scouts didn't photograph very well now that he saw them side-by-side. It wasn't really noticeable when you looked at them one by one, he just couldn't recall any details when he thought about them.

His mind just didn't seem to hold onto their looks. Instead he noticed their bodies and the clothing they wore. Starfire, Moon, Mercury, and Mars. All planets, all part of the inner solar system, except for Venus and Jupiter. Did that mean that more of the girls would show eventually? Each of the files suggested just that and that if the girls could be recruited by the government if need be. Gendo thought the idea was a waste of time when he could just enslave them to his will and have them do what ever he wanted them to do.

If there was supposed to be a magical girl connected to each of the planets, he would have to find them as well. Sailor Moon suggested the there may be girls to represent each moon around a planet as well. Forming small and large teams of magical girls based on planets. He couldn't help imagining what all those girls would look like arrayed around him on the ground as his slaves.

It would be glorious.

Ranma, of course, would be first, as that was the boy's whole role in life. The rest of the girls would be put to better uses than fighting aliens in the park until he had all his plans set up. Sanjouin would have to wait a day or two until this was done. Ranma came first, then his mother, and then his brother. He nodded to himself. Genma had outlived his usefulness and it was time to do something about him as well.

He yawned and realized he's been working non-stop for quite some time. He would have to put his plans off for at least twelve hours, but he had plenty of time, so it didn't matter. It was now nearly thirty hours without any kind of rest as well. He used a bit of his power to stave of his growing need for sleep just a little longer and stepped outside. As with so many things, this tiny mistake would prove to be a problem within the next few days.

oooooooooo

"Hey Ranma."

Ranma was just finishing his early morning exercises. Her two new techniques were really pushing her limits like crazy. Even as she turned to look at Ami as the girl sat down on the grass beside her, she could feel every muscle in her body protesting the move. It didn't help that she was wearing a loose pair of pants and a sleeveless shirt and that it was sticking to her like glue. Or that she currently weighed about four hundred pounds due to her weight technique.

"Hey Ami." Ranma said. "How's things going in Juuban?"

The blue haired girl pulled out her mini computer. "Pretty good. We've managed to take down three Youma in the last few days. One right after another."

"That many?"

Ami nodded. "They were a bit of a pain, but without you there Usagi had to step up and pull her weight a little more. Though she has been a bit irritable over it."

Ranma laughed as she relaxed next to Ami. "Sorry I haven't been there. Things have been rather hectic for the last few days."

"Rei hasn't mentioned you since Grandpa Hino tossed you out, but I think she's worried about you."

"I've been training mostly and haven't had time to even contact anyone. Found this old master that's been willing to show me a few things."

Pulling out a list, Ami marked a few things off, much to Ranma's amusement. "What about a place to live? I might be able to let you stay at my place for a few nights at least." Ami offered.

"Well I've almost found this nice place to stay actually. It's almost as peaceful as the Shrine and a great place to train when I need to really focus."

"I was going to ask about that as well. Also, how's your mother doing? You mentioned her the other day."

"Pretty good actually. There's this jerk that's trying to harm her though and Genma already tried, so things have been busy."

Ami fidgeted a little. "Um, I haven't mentioned this to the others yet, but the authorities have been looking into our backgrounds."

This was a bit of a shock for Ranma. "Already?"

"Yes, but I haven't been able to track down if there is only one group. Or more than one involved in the investigation. So far I know the government has a couple of people watching us, but that's all."

"Even now?"

She nodded.

"They're pretty good if I haven't noticed them. I watch for things like that." Ranma muttered under her breath.

"I'm pretty sure they know who we are by now. We haven't been very careful hiding our identities."

"Yeah, changing in public isn't exactly high security." Ranma mused and lay back. "Right now I don't think we need to worry about them though. Government always works slowly. It could months before they even try anything."

"Still, we need to be on our guard and stick together, we are a team. At least I thought so."

Ranma picked up the hint, it was a little blatant, in what she was saying. By themselves, they were easier targets than if they were together. "I'll be back in Juuban within the next week or two I think."

"You may want to come back a little sooner."

"Why?"

"School."

"Um…I have been a little busy." Ranma giggled a little. She was so used to going to school for a short while and then moving on that she hadn't really taken school that seriously. It might be a good idea to head back though, just to finish the school year at least.

Light started to gleam off of Ami's glasses. Ranma wasn't sure when she put them on either. "They want to know when you're coming back. You did enroll there for a reason."

This just made the red head laugh a little more. "Um…"

"Fighting is one thing Ranma, but you need a good education."

"I'll give them a call today or tomorrow."

"The principle would like that." It wasn't a hint this time. It was a direct order from the genius.

"Of…course." Ranma resisted the urge to start performing the old man's Crouch of the Wild Tiger technique. The only reason he didn't give in was that he suddenly sensed something weird. Snapping to the side she stared at a nearby bush as it rustled.

"Ranma?"

"There's something over there."

Ami used her mini computer to perform a quick scan. "I am picking up something."

"A Youma?"

She shook her head. "No, these reading don't look anything like what we usually deal with."

Ranma stared at the bush. "The hair in the back of my neck is standing up. That only happens when I encounter something truly dangerous."

"Do you want to fight it?"

"Maybe, but first I want to know what it is." Ranma said as she slowly came to her feet and started walking towards the bush. The plant suddenly started moving and three cats stepped out to glare at him. Ranma stopped in shock as she noticed something odd about the cats.

They were skin and bone with little tufts of hair here and there. Ranma also wondered about the large wings and oversized claws on their feet. All three of them started hissing at her and flexing muscles. Spreading their wings wide, they bent down and hissed evilly.

"Ranma, now that I can get a direct scan on them I'm picking up dark magic of some kind. The computer doesn't recognize it though."

"So this isn't one of the usual guys? Ranma muttered. "Just how many jerks are we fighting these days?"

"Way too many." Ami admitted. "Even now the computer can't get a complete reading on them. I've never seen magic quite like this."

Ranma kept an eye on the things as they inched forward sniffing the air, their tails twitching from side to side as they closed in. "Lets back…"

"More in coming." Ami snapped as she reached up to touch her earring. A blue visor lowered over her eyes. Ranma wondered when his friend had learned to use the computer when she wasn't transformed, but didn't have time to ask.

"How many?"

"Eighteen….twenty…thirty total." Came Ami's clipped response as her fingers flew over the tiny keyboard.

"Blast." Ranma hissed. "They're too many people around to just transform. She glanced down at her bracers and saw that they were glowing. "We need to find a safe place to transform."

"There are probably people watching us right now." Ami reminded her.

"I know. That means we have to be sneaky."

Ami glanced around, keeping an eye on the cat things and their surroundings. "In the trees over there."

"It'll have to do." Ranma said as they sprinted away from the cat things.

The little monsters all hissed and started chasing after the girls. One of them crouched down and vanished from sight as the others followed. Even as they passed the first tree Ranma had her bracers crossed in front of her as she called out her transformation phrase. She exploded into light as her uniform wrapped around her and she bounced off a couple of trees. She landed on the ground as Starfire.

Half a second later Sailor Mercury landed next to her. "The things are following us."

Starfire's eyes narrowed as she looked to the trees as the little monsters swarmed towards them every direction. "These things are smarter than I thought they would be."

"They seem to be following simple tactics."

The red head nodded, the jewel in her tiara started to glow. She broke into a run, sending out several blasts of magic. Five of the cat things exploded the instant she finished her attack. The force of the blasts nearly sent her flying off her feet.

Holding her hands out, Mercury did a little spin and sent super cold bursts of water raining down on the little monsters. Several dropped out of the air around her, but she couldn't keep it up and had to dive out of the way as they dive-bombed her.

Starfire turned and booted one of them across the city, slapped three more out of the air by their tails, and smacked a sixth into the ground at her feet. She wasn't very surprised to see the things recover almost instantly. "What the hell are these things?"

With about a dozen of them left, they could only watch as the things settled into the trees around them and started hissing, their eyes glowing as they hid in shadows. The two Scouts looked around and realized that they could see more than a dozen eyes. Frowning, Ami pulled her computer out again and made another scan.

Starfire just wanted to blast the things from existence. "I don't like this."

Suddenly Mercury cursed. "Every time we hit one of them with magic, they absorb it and split off into more than one cat, there must be at least a hundred here by now."

"So we just created all these extras?"

Mercury nodded. "We need to find another way."

"How about if we call the others in?"

"I've already done that, but they are still half an hour away. We are in a completely different district here."

Starfire just nodded and realized that it was just them.

Suddenly the cats all rose up into the air and dove at the girls. The cats opened their mouths and breathed out a beam of black energy that struck both girls. They cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground as their legs gave out. Then as fast as it happened the pain just went away. Mercury jumped to her feet and brought her computer up for a scan.

Only to have it fall to pieces in her hand. She just stood there gaping at the destruction of her most prized possession. Then she noticed that Starfire was still on the ground and appeared to be unconscious. "Starfire!"

Kneeling down she quickly found a pulse and made sure her friend wasn't injured in any noticeable way. She glanced mournfully at her computer and wondered if she could get it fixed fast enough to take some readings. She was practically useless without the thing. Then Starfire groaned and stat up holding her head.

"I've got such a headache." Ranma froze up as Mercury suddenly hugged her and sighed in relief. "Um…"

"I thought you were hurt."

"I'm fine, I think." She admitted, though a bit dizzy. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure, those cat things have vanished though."

Staggering to her feet Starfire assessed her body. "Everything seems to be in working order…"

A red blur came flying into the trees and tackled Starfire. Mercury only had a second to blink before she realized that Ito had arrived and tackled the red head. Once they come to a stop Ito latched on to Starfire's head and starts purring loudly.

"Get off!"

"I thought you died for a second there!" Ito cried bursting into tears. "I thought you were dead!"

Purr Rub Purr

"I'm fine! Stop that!"

Rub Purr Rub

"Starfire." Mercury said.

"What? I've got cat problems here." She muttered.

PURR!

Oooooooooo

As far as Gendo could tell the girls were like magical weapons of mass destruction, but just bright enough to think for themselves. Witness repots stated that while their attacks could rip monsters to pieces, they only did minor damage to their surroundings. Walls were occasionally found with burn marks and a random cloudbank popped up here and there, but their powers rarely did a lot of actual damage.

This allowed the police to pretend the girls didn't exist.

All their powers seemed to be based off of elemental abilities, but restricted to certain styles and shapes for some reason. One could throw fireballs after moving in a little dance motion and pointing her fingers at the target. She seemed to be one of the more powerful ones too. Another girl threw around fog and cold air and appeared to be the one that guided the group's plans. She was also the weakest of the girls and would be the easiest to take down.

Then the blonde one. The brainless monkey that had an uncanny knack for blasting monsters into ash with an attack that no one could identify. This would have sounded better if she wasn't throwing around a charged up Frisbee while posing and giggling. He figured that all her power was in her magic weapon and not the girl herself. He would have to find a use for her after he broke the other girls, maybe as a janitor or something.

Getting up he wandered over to his bar and waved his hand. A glass of amber liquid appeared on the counter. He took several seconds to saver the drink before downing it in a second. He didn't gasp like most would and calmly put the cup back down. The Scouts were going to be quite useful to him over the next few weeks.

The only one he couldn't quite pin down was his pawn, Ranma. His pets hadn't found the boy, no girl, yet, but he knew it would only be a matter of time. Once he knew where the 'girl' was, he could take steps to make her life quite interesting. He would have to break the girl of course, there was no way he would let someone with Ranma's training just waltz around without a leash of some kind.

Not while the girl could punch through a reinforced concrete wall with her bare hands anyway. He was also beginning to realize that the files weren't intact. That meant he would have to take a little more time to get the correct information. Frowning, he considered everything he knew and tried to look at it from a different angle. The girls were experienced enough to fight off some quite deadly enemies. That meant he would have to consider his every move.

He would need to dig up some special equipment of his plans were going to work. A little while later he wandered down into his basement. Like Nodoka, he had a basement full of items collected over the years. Unlike Nodoka, he didn't have it stored in any kind of order. Just tossed wherever it landed around the room.

The back wall was covered in boxes piled to the ceiling. He knew what was in most of the boxes, mostly. There were a few boxes lost in the room that he hadn't ever looked through before. After about ten minutes of moving boxes he pulled a small case out of a box and wiped the dust off.

He remembered magically locking the box several years ago as he took it over to a counter. Channeling a bit of magic into the lock, he opened it to reveal a few pieces of jewelry. Two rings, a pair of bracelets, and a small amulet. After taking the amulet out he put the box away and put everything back the way it was.

A scratching noise caught his attention as he was examining the amulet. Looking up at a small window he saw that one of his pets was back. The window opened with a wave of his hand and the winged cat flew over to him and landed on his shoulder. It meowed a few times and Gendo nodded.

"I see. Good job, I want you to keep an eye on her until you find where she lives. It's one of the few things that haven't been found yet."

It meowed and quickly left the house. The telepathic conversation with the thing had revealed the whole battle and that Ranma was now marked in a way that would allow for easy tracking. Surprisingly Ranma had a bad reaction to what was normally a light show.

He would have to look into it, but it would have to wait until he had a plan in place for the other girls. There was no way he would allow them to just show up and ruin his plans. The amulet would come in hand with nearly all the girls. He still wasn't sure about Moon though. Her power didn't seem to be element based. That meant he would have to examine her to find out what she was using.

He conjured anther glass of wine as he contemplated the amulet.

oooooooooo

Hanging off Ranma's shoulder, Ito purred as loudly as she could. Ranma did her best to ignore the cat as she de-transformed. Ranma had something more important to worry about now. "Ami?"

His friend was holding pieces of her computer in her hands with a look of complete shock on her face. She sniffled a little and nudged a piece closer to another one, but they just fell apart. Ranma could understand a little, but the genius had been like this for close to ten minutes now. Every few seconds Ami would whimper and twitch.

"Um, is there anything I can do to help?"

"Can you fix it?" She asked in a hollow voice.

"Not a clue." Ranma admitted.

"Then shut up!" She yelled, blushed, and twitched. Mercury was looking a little wild eyed as she struggled not to cry.

Ito coughed. "Ami, it's possible that transforming back into your Mercury form will fix it. It's all based on the magic that you use, even the equipment. That's how Sailor Moon's tiara turns into energy and back to a solid when she uses it."

Looking hopeful, Ami quickly transformed, but the computer stayed the same. She sighed in defeat after her third try. "I…don't know what to do."

"Maybe it chose now to break for a reason. A Scout's powers are rather fluid and you are the only one to learn a new attack in the last couple of months." Ito muttered aloud. "Maybe that means that your equipment is altering a bit. I recall that happening to a couple of the Outer Planet Scouts at one point. They needed extra magical fire power and eventually their powers responded to that need."

Ami sighed. "I have no way to check that sort of thing now."

"Just go to Control."

"I thought Luna was the only one that could get down there?"

"Control was set up about a year ago when it was realized that Beryl was awakening. I'm not sure who set it up, but we all have access to it when we need it." Ito explained. "Luna just tends to be a little strict at times."

"Luna gave her the original mini computer, is it possible that she has extras?"

Ito shrugged, nearly slippingoff Ranma's shoulder, and gasped as she tried to find a better position to hang from.

"Ito?"

"Yes?"

"Get your claws out of my back. This shirt is one of my favorite ones and I don't' have many of them."

Blushing, Ito nodded and relaxed her claws. "Ah, right, sorry."

Ranma sighed in relief and Ito pretended to lick her claws while smirking. About twenty minutes later, after getting off the tram, they made their way into Juban. Ami was still mourning the loss of her computer as they walked to the arcade. They wandered over to the Sailor V video game and Ito had Ranma tap out a sequence on the control pad.

They quickly slipped into a small access door next to the game that they couldn't remember seeing before. Ito explained that as a Mau cat they could just use a small hatch below the game, which they could slide down, but the Scouts themselves had to use the stairs to get down to Control.

Ranma nodded, only half listening to the cat blabber on about things. She was starting to get worried about Ami as they went down the stairs. The girl didn't' seem to be paying attention to what was going on around them anymore. "Things will work out."

"I feel naked without my computer." She muttered.

Blushing a little, Ranma tried not to think about Ami naked and shook her head. "Don't give up hope just yet."

"Why?"

"We're here." Ranma explained as she pushed open a door at the bottom of the small stair well and they entered the computer room. The hair on the back of Ranma's neck stood up almost instantly. She was instantly on alert. "Wha…"

"You can feel the magic and power pulsing away in here." Ami gasped. "Is this place safe?"

Ito nodded as she jumped down and made her way over to a terminal. "Perfectly safe." She transformed into her human form, adjusted her red dress, and sat down. "I'm going to see if there's some information in here regarding your computer Ami."

The blue haired girl nodded.

Lifting two fingers, Ito started pecking at the keys. "This shouldn't take to long."

Ami glared at Ito's hands as if they were committing some kind of sacrilege right there on the keyboard. Ranma on the other hand just looked around room and appeared to be a little bored as she wandered over to an open space and started doing one-armed pushups to pass the time. A little while later Ito finally finished with the computer as information started to scroll across the screen.

"Okay, Ami, please place the pieces to the computer on the scanner over there and we can see what happened." Ito instructed. They watched as each piece of the computer seemed to glow and digitize itself before vanishing.

The two of them watched as the computer analyzed the information for several minutes. They ignored Ranma as she started doing handstand pushups. However, Ami had to resist the urge to giggle as Ranma's breasts thumped her in the chin a couple of times. Then the computer beeped and more information appeared on the screen.

"Just as I thought." Ito said. "The computer has out lived its usefulness and was about to change to something else when the process was interrupted."

"So it had to do with that Ice Fog I created a few days ago?"

"Yep, as your power increased so does your equipment. Every now and then the uniform will change to reflect changes as well, though not to much."

Ami nodded. "I recall reading something about that a few months back. The computer didn't give much information on when it would happen though."

"Magic grows as you mature and age, so the timing tends to vary."

"What about my computer?"

"I've never heard of a power up like this being interrupted before. So I'm not sure what you need to do to fix it." Ito admitted, but quickly started scanning reference links.

This just made Ami sit down in a nearby chair and start thinking. Ranma quickly bounced to her feet with a grunt and took a second to adjust her shirt. "You need change into your Mercury form and concentrate on the power up. The magic will take it from there."

They both turned to look at her.

Ranma shrugged. "I have no idea how I know, I just do. It seems obvious to me for some reason. As if I've done something like it myself."

"I think that just might work." Ito admitted.

"It will."

All three looked around.

"Who?" Ito asked.

"I'm Central Control." The voice said.

"The one Luna talks about?"

"Yep."

"Why haven't you talked to us before now?" Ami asked, frowning a little more. She didn't like strange people popping up out of nowhere.

"Luna is the only one that ever accesses the computer. I was observing you to see who you were and why you were there. It's good to see you again Sailor Sun."

Ranma growled. "Call me Starfire."

"Ah, I forgot you changed the name. My apologies."

The red head nodded. "Any other advice?"

"When Mercury transforms she needs to picture what she wants the new computer to be like. She can get an updated hand held version, or something more up to date if she wants."

"Give it a go Ami." Ranma said.

Pulling her Pen out of stuff space Ami quickly transformed in a burst of deep blue light. She did as instructed and focused on what she wanted and felt the flow of magic change just a little during the transformation. She posed just as it finished and looked down at her left wrist.

"A bracelet/glove?" Ranma asked. She sounded a bit confused.

"I wanted something a little more advanced." Mercury explained as he flipped the four-inch screen up. Holding her hands up in a typing position an illusionary keyboard appeared below her fingers. She typed for several seconds to test the new set up. "It works great. This way I can get my work done and not have to worry about losing the hand held. This one will stay with me permanently."

"What about when you're not transformed?" Ito asked.

"That's why it's a bracelet. That will stay where it is when I change back. I was going to have it all set into a bracer, but that would have made typing nearly impossible, this way I can scan and record things as fast as before."

"Excellent work." Central Control said.

Ranma nodded and gave her friend a smile. "I wish my problem was as easy to fix."

"You'll figure it out eventually Ranma." Ito said. "I'm pretty sure that you just need to grow into your full power before you can do anything about your curse."

"I hope you're right Ito."

Holding her hand towards Ranma, Mercury quickly scanned Ranma. Her visor lowered as the scan started. "Ranma, that beam seems to have left quite a bit of energy behind."

"Oh?"

Mercury nodded. "I think it marked you in some way."

"I'm being tracked?"

"Confirmed." Central Control said. "This is old magic, ancient arcane magic that hasn't been used in millennia."

"You recognize it?" Ito asked.

"My computers do. The scanners here are more sensitive than the ones Mercury uses. The magic used on Ranma is known as Manna Manipulation Magic. There seems to be more information available, but it's been classified by an outside source."

"I've run into that more than once as well." Mercury grumbled. "There are things we aren't supposed to know just yet. I just hope it doesn't cause us problems down the line."

"Thanks Control." Ranma said. "We need to get out of here if I'm being tracked." Anyone know of a way to get rid of the energy?"

The girls shook their heads and Control was silent, so Ranma shrugged it off. "I'll fight anyone that comes along. Right now I'm in the mood for some ice cream." She smirked. "And isn't it lucky we're near a café."

oooooooooo

Getting into and out of places was harder than most people thought. Pluto had a certain reputation for being able to go, do, or see anything she wanted to with the Time Gate. It wasn't quite that easy. Sure the Gate could be used like that, but it took years of practice. Back in the days of the Moon Kingdom a Guardian of the Gate would never have to do more than twenty years and that included time off for rest.

Pluto had been on the job for much longer than that though. Closer to ten thousand years. So she had developed a few skills that earlier Guardians had never considered or even attempted. She didn't watch the time stream as let the Gate itself guide her to the potential problems.

So she wasn't very surprised when the alarm she set up went off while she was asleep. With a start, her bloodshot eyes snapped open and it took her a second to realize that she was splayed out over the whole bed. Sitting up slowly, she groaned and took a second to remember what century it was and got out of bed.

Tripping over a loose sheet on the floor, she fell over and had to take a second to climb back to her feet. Once she was back on her feet she staggered out of her room, grabbing up her staff on the way, she made her way through a door, and out into the smoky plain that made up the land around the gate.

The Gate alarm stopped as she approached and shifted into display mode, showing her a scene. The government was now aware of the girls. Pluto sighed and thought about her timetable. They were nearly three years ahead of schedule. She didn't want the girls to know about her until the time was right though. So she would have to hinder these people while she could.

They gave a little rumble as she thought this. She ignored it and tapped the gate with her staff and concentrated. The image shifted until several images appeared. With a thought she stepped through into a records room and a wave of magic swept away from the staff as she looked around.

Seconds later she was in front of a filing cabinet. She tapped it with her staff and a wisp of smoke rose into the air. With that done she made six more stops, even to the super secret underground room below the Diet building that no one was supposed to know about, and destroyed specific sections of the files. She couldn't destroy them completely or people would know that something was going on.

Once that was done she made one last stop she made sure she was there to watch as Gendo take the box. Once that was done she headed back to the Gate and made sure the Plan was still working. Ranma's addition was still making massive changes to a lot of minor points in history, but the main timeline was still intact and growing stronger by the day.

Pluto was a bit amazed that the impact that Ranma's first incarnation, Princess Ranko had made on the time line.

oooooooooo

After spending half an hour messing with her new computer and eating ice cream, Ami excused her self and headed home. Ranma had really had to resist teasing the poor girl. Losing that computer had really thrown her for a loop. Her instincts kept pointing out little things like Ami having a 'Geek-o-gasm' right there at the table.

Of course Ito headed out without eating anything. She still had several things to accomplish for her own mission. She was sure that the Masaki house would be theirs within the week. Once that was done they just had to remodel the thing to suit their needs. Old houses were perfect for that so long as you weren't lazy.

Ito even thought they could use old Moon Kingdom tech to get the place set up for the whole group. A place to train and relax whenever they needed it. They wouldn't have to put up with over protective parents either. Ranma was still sore about being thrown out of the Shrine. She and Rei had just started to get along with each other and then she's no longer welcome. After paying her bill, she winced, and then handed over the cash.

Several minutes later she was heading down the street. She noticed that several dozen people were wandering around, even teenagers. Her body was really starting to feel the strain as well. She would be glad when she could head back to her camp and get a few hours rest. It had been quite some time since she was this tired.

New techniques always tired her out though.

"Ranma!" Rei ran up and gave her quick hug.

Ranma froze for a second. "Hey Rei, what's up?"

"Where you been? I was worried." She glared at the red head.

"Looking for a new place to live mostly. I should know where I'm staying in a week though." Ranma explained as they started walking down the street.

"Grandpa isn't quite as mad as he was."

Ranma shrugged.

"You still can't live there anymore though." She explained.

"I figured as much."

We've also had a couple of Youma pop up while you were gone. The Baka took care of them though." Rei said with a little giggle.

"Now Usagi packs quite a punch." Ranma said.

"True, but she's still a Baka."

Ranma nodded. "She can be, but don't write her off completely. That disc of hers slices through Youma like a hot knife through butter."

"Ami mentioned that you haven't been going to school." Rei said, changing the subject. Ranma just shrugged and answered.

"I haven't, finding a place to live is more important that knowing which emperor executed an entire village because he stubbed his toe."

"Is there anything I can do to help? I feel a little guilty about you living on the streets now. Usagi did say she might be able to let you live at her place for a little while."

Ranma shook her head. "I've lived on the road a good portion of my life Rei. So living out of my tent for a couple of weeks is easy. I still have all my equipment and money to buy food, so I'm not worried. It's not that big of a deal."

"If you say so."

"You know that Ami managed to create a new attack with her powers?"

Rei nodded. "Why?"

"I want you and Usagi to try and do the same. It'll help you get stronger and keep up with Ami."

"What about you?"

"I've been working on my body. I've managed to get control of those power surges that were causing problems. Now I just have to perfect a couple of new techniques and I can move on to my own powers."

"Ah, I had been wondering about those."

They walked along in silence for several minutes before Rei managed to work up enough nerve to continue talking. "Um, I had a vision yesterday."

"What did you see?"

"It was a bit confusing, but there was this guy, wearing a black version of your clothing running around fighting both us and the bad guys. He had a strange inverted quarter moon on his forehead too."

"Strange."

Rei nodded. She couldn't seem to tell Ranma that the man seemed to be Ranma's male version. Not after Ranma told her about being a man trapped in the body of a girl because of a magical curse. She didn't want to get Ranma's hopes up only to have them dashed. She had a feeling that such a thing would be very bad.

"What else did you see?"

"He seemed to know quite a few techniques and had blood on his hands. It made me very nervous and a little jumpy." Rei admitted.

"We might have to look into that. Did the guy have any marks or scars that could be used to identify him other than the thing on his forehead?"

"Just black hair pulled back in a pony tail."

Ranma frowned. "I'm not sure what to think."

"And a killer body…" Rei giggled a little.

Ranma tripped and fell over.

oooooooooo

Minako Aino had recently returned from her trip to England. She'd spent over a year there going to school. She had also spent most of it fighting crime as the super hero Sailor V. Right now as she walked down the street she was tired, emotionally. England had pretty much drained her enthusiasm.

Even her cat adviser, Artemis, a white cat was tired after every thing that had happened in England. They still weren't sure why the attacks had happened there either. Artemis spent weeks trying to figure out why they chose England as the first place to attack and he hadn't been able to find much of anything. A few clues pointed to Stonehenge, but nothing ever stood out enough to confirm it.

Now Artemis said the Enemy was working in Japan. She sighed as she turned and glanced at the setting sun. According to Artemis there were several girls with powers like hers running around fighting them as well. Thinking of England brought her a lot of pain. Shaking her head, she kept walking down the street.

Earlier she sensed something dark in the area, but she hadn't been able to pin point it. Her magic compact wasn't helping as much as it usually did. It was pointing her into every alley she went by as she walked. It was so useless that she was starting to wonder if it was working against her for some reason.

It hadn't ever failed her before, but now it was acting weird and she couldn't figure out why. She took a second to run a hand through her long blonde hair as she stopped in front of yet another alley and glanced at the compact. It shimmered and showed her another picture of sleeping cats, dogs, and even rats. This was becoming irritating.

The alleys always turned out to be empty when she checked them. Except for the occasional trashcan and half eaten food. Stepping into the alley she carefully started to look around once more. As with the others there wasn't any thing wrong as far as she could tell. She looked up as Artemis jumped from a nearby can and landed on her shoulder.

"Artie, find anything."

The white cat shook his head as he hung off her shoulder lazily. "Not at thing."

"I think the Compact is broken."

"I checked it out earlier and its working fine." Artemis said. "I did notice that these alleys are way to clean. Even the walls look scrubbed and washed. Very little dust and all the cans are lined up in neat little rows."

Minako blinked a few times and noticed just that. "I hadn't even thought of that."

"I'm not sure what's going on, but we may need to let the other team know about it. This is suspicious."

She shook her head. "I'm not ready just yet."

"You will have to talk to them eventually."

"I'm used to working alone." She insisted, looking at a nearby puddle of water.

"I won't push Mina, but we can't ignore them forever."

She shrugged as she walked the rest of the way down the alley. Then she stopped as she found a strange sight in front of her. An Animal Control van was backed into a small section of the alley. Several men in white jump suits were carefully picking up several dogs laid out on the ground.

"What in the world?"

One of the men turned to look at her. "Be careful there, we aren't sure what's wrong the dogs, but they may be sick."

"With what? Any idea?" She asked, thinking of the police techniques she learned while in England.

"No clue, we're finding these things all over the place lately. It's baffling. Now please move on." He ordered her.

Nodding, she moved off. "So, there's that answered."

"I saw a power sprayer in the van too. They're the ones spraying down the alley ways." Artemis told her.

"Now that I think about it, there have been a lot of vans like all over the city lately. I think mom even mentioned something about it on the news a few days ago."

Artemis sighed. "This is different than England. At least there we had Katerina to bounce ideas off of."

This just made Minako frown.

Artemis cringed. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring up 'that'."

"It's alright. I'll get over it eventually." She muttered darkly.

Artemis hoped it was soon. She did tend to bounce back from things quicker than normal people, but she wasn't the usual fun loving person he was used to. He watched as she pulled the compact out again and flipped it open. They watched as it showed them something new.

"A Monster." Minako crowed happily.

"So the Enemy really is here." The cat muttered.

"Looks female, a little small too."

"She was here within the last fifteen minutes or so."

The blonde nodded and grinned. "The game is afloat."

"Minako…"

"Whatever." She grinned. "Let's kick some booty."

She moved the compact around and it sent an almost invisible beam of light in the direction she had to follow. Breaking into a fast walk, she started tracking her prey down. They came across another Animal Control van about two blocks down. After that they found an alleyway full of unconscious cats and dogs. Artemis jumped down and started to look around.

"There!" Minako yelled and jumped up to grab onto a fire escape.

Artemis looked up to see the monster standing on the edge of the roof. Its eyes glowed for a second before it moved out of sight. Minako raced up the metal stairs and hopped up on the roof using the athletic skill she rarely demonstrated.

"Who might you be weakling human?" The monster growled.

"I'll put a foot to you."

"Huh?" The Youma muttered.

"Um…hold?"

"I think you meant 'stop'." Artemis said as he finished climbing to the roof.

"Whatever." She grinned. "Crescent Moon Power! Transform!"

For a brief second the roof of the building is flooded with light as the compact lights up and fills Minako's body with energy. As it dies down Minako is in her Sailor V uniform, a short blue skirt edged in red, shoulder pads, a basic sailor out fit, and oversized red glasses. Her blonde hair swirls around her as she smirks at the Youma.

Vespa analyzes the situation for several seconds before she pivots around and races away from Sailor V. There was no way she wanted to fight a Sailor Scout after every thing she had survived so far. She would also have to contact Jade, but that would have to wait.

She reached the end of the roof and power jumped, launching into the sky, and landing on a roof several hundred feet away. Sailor V quickly followed, though she didn't have Vespa's distance, she made up for it in speed and acrobatic jumps. Using ledges, light poles, and even cars as they raced along.

They even managed to startle several groups of people out for the evening. All of them recognized Sailor V instantly. People quickly noticed what she was following and started to cheer her on as she ran. Minako noticed, but didn't have time to stop and say anything to the people as she ran. Within minutes they were half a mile away and still going.

"Come here you baka!" She yelled.

oooooooooo

Ranma's head snapped around as she felt a rush of energy several miles away. She tried to analyze it, but it was too vague. Frowning, she considered chasing it down, but she could already tell that it was moving away from her location. It would take too long to track it down.

It wasn't evil either. The energy was familiar, but nothing like Usagi, Ami, or Rei used. Just similar. Something deep in her mind tugged at her, but she couldn't grab onto it. Since it wasn't evil she put it out of her mind for the moment. She did make a note to tell Ito and Luna about it though. There was a good chance they would know what it was.

She had to finish dinner after all.

oooooooooo

Cursing as she ran, Vespa tried to take several short cuts through construction sites and even an underground tunnel, but Sailor V kept on her tail through it all. Vespa was sure would have to stop and fight the girl if she didn't find a way to get away soon. She didn't have the energy reserves for a long fight though.

She was well aware who Sailor V was and didn't want to have anything to do with the girl that single handedly took down the Dark Network in England. Queen Beryl hadn't been very happy with their failure either. Shaking her head, Vespa landed and raced into an alley. Seconds later Sailor V landed and sauntered into the alley.

"Come out and face me monster." She calls out as she held up a boomerang.

Stepping out from behind some trash cans, Vespa crouched down, and forms a ball of magic in her hand. "This has gone on long enough. Die!"

She hurled the ball of magic just as Sailor V threw the boomerang. It sliced through the magic attack and made it explode several feet from the blonde fighter. The boomerang circled back and Sailor V caught it just as the dust from the explosion started to settle. She frowned as she realized that Vespa isn't there anymore.

Kicking a trashcan in frustration she hopped onto the fence to get a better look. She spotted the monster racing around the edge of a building on the other side of the fence. Launching into the air, she quickly raced after her attacker. Seconds later a white cat races through the alley, hopped the fence, and raced after Sailor V. He was moving so fast that he was barely a blur of motion.

With the chase on again V launched to the top of a nearby light pole. "Crescent Beam! Crescent Beam! Crescent Beam!"

Three bright yellow beams of light fire from her finger. The first attack misses Vespa by only inches, causing her to skid to a halt. The second and third hit her in side though and send her tumbling. Sailor V quickly landed and raced over. She skidded to a halt right next to the monster just in time to see it smirk and fade away.

"It's a fake!?" She yelled and her eyes narrowed for a second. "She never left the alley."

"She's long gone by now Sailor V." Artemis says as he finally catches up.

She felt like kicking a trashcan again and raced back to the alley. As expected, it's completely empty, and there's no sign the Youma was ever there.

"Get the compact out and try and use it to scan for the Youma."

Nodding, Sailor V yanked it out and flipped it open. It glows for a second and gives her a confusing reading. "I don't' understand this."

"What's it say?"

"It's showing an old run down house and blowing dust on the floor."

Artemis jumps to her shoulder for a look. "What in the world does that mean?"

"I think this one got away."

The cat nodded. "We'll have to keep our eyes open for her now that we know she exists. These things never give up. So she's bound to attack some animals again."

Glancing around, Sailor V transformed back into Minako with a sigh. "I hate it when they get away. I wish Ace was here."

"Minako, you…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I just got used to having him around."

"I know. Let's head home, I bet your parents are worried about you."

Nodding, Minako headed for the train station. She figured it would take her half an hour to get home at least.

oooooooooo

After retrieving the amulet, Gendo headed back upstairs and spent about an hour going over the thing to make sure it was still in working order. Even taking a few minutes to cast a couple of spells to test out the device, which started to glow after the spells were cast. Sure they were just a couple of low power spells, but they tested the amulet perfectly.

Once he had that done, he took several minutes to turn it into a cloak clasp. He didn't really like the amulet design and if he was going to be effective, the amulet needed to be ready at all times. Not hidden under his shirt on a chain. The Sailor Scouts were going to be in for one hell of a surprise when they met him. They didn't stand a chance.

Then there was the other benefit, Ranma would be at his mercy. He glanced up just as his cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"This is Masato."

"Hey."

"Have you managed to get what I wanted?"

"Yes, but the files are a little incomplete. Someone tampered with them before I got to them."

"Do they hold what I need?"

"Yep."

"Bring them to Juuban Park. I'll meet you there and show you to a place where we can talk in private."

"No problem, I'll be there in about thirty minutes." Gendo said as he hung up.

He hadn't been expecting to hear from him this soon, but he wasn't to surprised either. Men like Masato tended to be impatient when working with others. Gendo had gotten used to work with the type after years in the government. Getting up, he quickly rounded up everything. He pulled on a pair of white gloves and a dark jacket before heading outside.

Twenty minutes later he sauntered into the park and looked around. At first the place appeared to be deserted, but then he spotted Masato some distance away. He was standing by a sickly group of trees and staring right at him. Gendo resisted the urge to shiver and made his way over to the man. "You didn't say exactly where."

Masato shrugged. "You can't find this place unless you are a powerful mage. I've hidden it with magic."

Intrigued, Gendo nodded. "Lead the way."

"You have the information?"

Gendo patted his pocket. "Right here, I shrank it."

The man looked surprised for a second. "Interesting."

Silently they walked into the trees and Gendo quickly lost his bearings as they passed through beams of light filtering through the trees. He wasn't sure how long they walked, but it had to have been ten minutes before the path opened up to reveal a large two-story manor house. It didn't have the scary look that he expected. Instead it looked perfectly normal except for a large skylight that covered a large portion of the roof.

He could feel magical power throughout the entire area. Even the red Ferrari sitting next to the house pulsed with magic. There was more to this guy than he thought there was. A few seconds later they entered the house. The long haired Dark Kingdom General led his guest into the living room.

Gendo quickly reaches into his coat and pulls out the file folders and un-shrinks them. He sets them on the table. "Here's what I was able to find on such short notice."

Nephrite picks up a folder. "You said that someone had tampered with the information before you arrived?"

"Yep, though I'm not sure how much was changed. According to one of my sources Mercury here is a student at Juuban High. An Ami Mizuno or Akiko Takaho."

"You aren't sure?" Nephrite growled. "What are you trying to pull? I wanted accurate information. This isn't accurate."

"It's the best that I have."

Nephrite slammed a book on the table. "There's your payment. Now get out."

Gendo quickly grabbed the book and put it away. "Thank you."

Seconds later Gendo found himself standing at the edge of the trees. He wasn't sure how he arrived there. Pulling out a small note pad he decided that he would have to take a closer look at Masato Sanjouin. The man might get in the way of his plans eventually.

oooooooooo

With a little hop off the top of a nearby gate, Sailor V landed on the top of the wall and looked around. Her long blonde hair was a little frazzled from the two mile run over the rooftops, but she ignored that. Instead her senses were telling her that she was close to the Youma she was tracking.

Artemis was still several blocks behind her, but he had explained how she could follow the dark energy generated by a Youma. The trick only worked if the trail was only a few minutes old. Even after she figured it out she had problems following the trail. It seemed to double back on itself several times before it even left the area.

V's eyes narrowed as she scanned the ground with her special glasses. The trail was a little stronger than before, but it was dissipating faster than she expected it to. She moved along the wall and used the glasses to look at everything around her. It only took her a few seconds to find a stronger trace and it led right into a house just down the street. A run down house that didn't have anyone living there.

Two jumps and she was standing in front of the house. The glasses were showing a very strong reading leading right through one of the windows on the side. She grinned as she tiptoed over to the window and carefully glanced inside. The Youma was sitting on the floor holding a small crystal in its hand.

She could see several other crystals piled next to the wall a few feet away. All of them were giving off a gentle glow. Just as she was about to make her presence known, she saw something that sent her diving behind a nearby bush. A blob of water was rising out of a hole next to the wall, but it wasn't acting like water.

Instead it seemed to be writhing around and growing in size. This quickly formed into a female form made out of water. Once that stabilized, it shifted again, this time into a human male with blonde hair and a glint in his eye. Sailor V hadn't seen anything like this before. She could feel the dark energy rolling off the guy as he headed for the door of the house.

For a second she wondered if she the Dark Network was active here in Japan. It was bad enough when she ended up following it across three continents over the last couple of years. Then she shook her head. The energy this guy was giving off was completely different than what she remembered.

As the man entered the abandoned house she snuck after him as soon as he was out of sight. A small thump nearly made her jump out of her skin and she spun around ready for a fight. Only to find Artemis laid out on his back gasping for air beside the wall.

"M…ade it, fin…aly." He gasped out.

V sighed. Artemis could almost keep up with her when she was transformed, but it always took a lot out of him. He'd complained more than once about the hour-long chases across this city or that over the last several months.

"Weeeeeeezzzzeeeee…" Artemis gasped. "I'm about to h…ack up a lung here. I swear…"

"The enemy is here Artie, be quiet." She hissed.

Artemis rolled to his feet and nodded tiredly. "Go get'em."

She quickly made her way over to the door and found that the guy hadn't closed it completely. Moving closer she could hear him talking to the Youma. Something here just wasn't right and she couldn't figure it out. Katerina was always good at figuring this stuff out for her. V shook her head and focused on the Youma inside.

"…managed to get quite a bit of energy Vespa."

"Yes Master, though it's getting a lot harder to do so."

"What happened." Jedite sneered angrily.

"A Scout, Sailor V, chased me down earlier. It's why I came here instead of the usual place."

Jedite nodded. "That's what you were supposed to do. Are you sure it was her?"

"I've heard about her from the other Youma who survived the Dark Network's collapse." Vespa admitted.

Sailor V was a bit surprised that they knew who she was. Frowning she glanced at the white cat, who sweatdropped after a few seconds, then motioned for her to get to work.

"What did she look like? Are you absolutely sure it was her?"

"Her outfit was a little different than the others. A blue skirt, red glasses, a red chest bow, and long blonde hair tied with a red band."

"That sounds like the brainless blonde."

"No sir, I'm aware of her as well. She took down several Youma last week. She has a lot of raw power, but no skill. This Sailor V is better trained than I expected and nearly captured me. I was amazed at how fast she could run. It reminded me of the red headed one."

"Anything else?" Jedite snapped.

"No sir."

"If she is working alone we might be able to take her down. The scouts have a lot of energy at their disposal as well. Capturing her could net us a thousand time the energy we've grabbed so far."

Vespa nodded just as she spotted something behind Jedite. With a snarl she jumped past Jedite before the man could do anything and slashed her claws through the door. The door fell to pieces, revealing Sailor V as she jumped back. "Master! It's her!"

Turning around in surprise, Jedite's eyes narrowed as he noticed Sailor V. "That's the pest that took down General Calcite's Dark Network in Europe alright." Jedite hadn't expected her to show up in Japan and he started to rework his plans on the spot. "Kill her!"

"Yes Master!" Vespa yelled. She didn't want to fight, but she couldn't disobey her Master. Opening her mouth she fired a beam of dark energy at V.

Casually flipping to the side Sailor V pointed her finger at the Youma. "CRESCENT BEAM!"

The Youma dodged, letting the beam blast a whole clear through the house, shattering the front wall. Just as V landed she used her momentum to race forward and throw a Rolling Screw Sailor V Punch. The swirling winds blew Vespa off her feet.

Just as she was rolling to land on her feet another Crescent Beam went right through her chest. Vespa cried out as her body collapsed into a pile of dust. With a determined look in her eyes Sailor V slowly turned to stare at Jedite and gave him a little grin.

He was shocked that that Vespa went down that fast. Then he recalled that Calcite had complained endlessly about this girl's ability to do the impossible. To thwart his every plan, no matter how much time he put into it. He growled and wondered once again why he could never seem to get the job done right.

The girl shot forward in a blur of motion. Old reflexes took over as he caught her fist with his off hand, leaned down, and blasted her in the stomach. The blonde cried out as she impacted against the wall about twenty feet away. With a groan she slid down and gasped for air.

"Sailor V." Jedite growled. "Don't presume that I'll do down that easily."

She rose to her feet with one arm holding her stomach. Minako hadn't taken a blow like that in a long time. Most enemies tended to use a distraction and run away instead of fight her directly. Youma were predictable, the leaders tended to be cowards. "Who…" She gasped.

"That's none of your concern. Leave me alone and I'll leave this place." Jedite offered. Sure he was lying, but she was just a girl.

"As if I'd let someone like you go." V said as she finally managed to get her breath back and brought her hand up. "Crescent Beam!"

Jedite twisted out of the way, but it just nicked his shoulder. His form wavered and shifted back into Jade, spilling water on the floor. She snarled and fired two quick blasts of energy at Sailor V. At the same time a tendril of water raced across the floor and absorbed the crystals sitting against the wall. Jade started glowing instantly.

"I'll take you down one blast at a time girl."

"What are you?" V asked as she dodged.

"I'll kill you!"

oooooooooo

Author's notes: Well there's what I've managed to get done after about six months of work. Not much, but I figured it was time to post what I had done. I've had to force almost every word of this as well, which is why it's taken so long to finish. I've got about five more scenes I was planning to post with this, but they'll go into the next chapter.

Feedback and Reviews would be appreciated.


End file.
